‘Catfish’ Directors to Tackle ‘Nerve’ for Lionsgate (Exclusive)

Lionsgate has tapped Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, the directing team that broke through with the Sundance hit Catfish, to helm Nerve.

Nerve is the company’s adaptation of the Jeanne Ryan YA novel being produced by Allison Shearmur.

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The novel tells of a high school senior wallflower who, in an attempt to broaden her horizons, joins a global online game of provocative truth or dare while an audience of “watchers” vote and comment. But as she becomes a sensation and advances higher and higher, the game evolves and soon she finds herself in a dangerous and life-ending situation.

Jessica Sharzer, a writer and exec producer on American Horror Story, wrote the adaptation.

Nerve, published in 2012 by Penguin Groups division Dial Books, was in the Los Angeles Times Fall 2012 roundup of young adult fiction and has been translated into six different languages.

Catfish garnered Joost and Schulman Hollywood attention, and the two have since gone on to direct Paranormal Activity 3 and 4. Catfish has also gone on to become a hit MTV show.

The duo are in pre-production on an untitled thriller for Blumhouse, IM Global and The Weinstein Co. and are attached to direct The Monkey Wrench Gang, an adaptation of a 1975 Edward Abbey novel being produced by Ed Pressman and Gary Burden.

Liongate’s Erik Feig and Jeyun Choi Munford are overseeing for the studio. Joost, Schulman and Sharzer are repped by CAA.

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