Lionsgate Acquires YA Sci-Fi Trilogy ‘The Outliers’

Lionsgate has acquired The Outliers, an upcoming sci-fi YA trilogy by bestselling author Kimberly McCreight.

Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman will produce via their Mandeville Films banner along with Reese Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea via their Pacific Standard banner.

The Outliers centers around a teen named Wylie whose her best friend goes missing. She finds Cassie in a remote spot in the woods with a group called the Outliers, who claim to be able to harness “intuition” and turn it into a powerful psychological weapon called EQ Transference. Wylie joins the Outliers, but, within days, she finds herself running for her life.

Wylie doesn’t know it, but she has the potential to become the most powerful Reader of all. There are many who would go to great lengths to destroy her, and she can’t trust anyone – least of all, the Outliers.

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The Outliers is planned as a trilogy of books. The first in the series will be published in late 2015.

Co-President of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Erik Feig, and Summit Entertainment’s executive vp of production Meredith Milton will oversee the project for the studio, and Laura Cray will oversee the project on behalf of Mandeville Films. Robert Melnik, Lionsgate’s executive vp of business affairs, negotiated the deal on behalf of the studio.

Lionsgate has obviously had major success in the field of YA adaptations. The first Hunger Games film earned $691.2 million worldwide and the sequel, Catching Fire, has taken in $864 million worldwide to date.

Mandeville Films and Papandrea also work together producing Summit Entertainment’s Warm Bodies. Mandevilla has recently come aboard to executive produce Lionsgate’s Insurgent, the sequel to the highly anticipated feature film Divergent based off of Veronica Roth’s bestselling trilogy, published by HarperCollins. 

McCreight’s first published novel, Reconstructing Amelia, is being adapted by HBO Films with Nicole Kidman to star. She’s repped by Resolution and Marly Rusoff & Associates, Inc.

E-mail: Rebecca.Ford@THR.com
Twitter: @Beccamford