Entertainment One and The Gotham Group are developing a TV series based on best-selling author Ruth Ware’s The Lying Game.
With New Line adapting In a Dark, Dark Wood and CBS Films doing The Woman in Cabin 10, the latest adaptation rights to one of Ware’s psychological thrillers (not to be confused with the novel and ABC Family series of the same name) were acquired by eOne from Gotham.
Los Angeles-based Gotham Group earlier placed In a Dark, Dark Wood at New Line with Reese Witherspoon attached. The Lying Game features a young women attending school near the cliffs of the English Channel, where four best friends became infamous for playing “the Lying Game,” in which they each told lies to classmates and faculty to see who could get away with the best lie.
But after the mysterious death of a teacher at the school, the girls were expelled in their final year. Years later, one of the friends reaches out to the others, and they reunite, bringing their secrets along with them.
“I was bowled over by eOne’s passionate pitch for The Lying Game. Together with Gotham Group, I’m convinced that my characters and their story could not be in better hands and thrilled to be working with them,” said Ware in a statement.
“The Lying Game is an edge-of-your-seat thriller that continues Ruth’s cinematic storytelling with a swift pace and tension-raising style that makes it impossible to put down,” said Pancho Mansfield, eOne’s president, global scripted programming, television in another statement.
Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell and Lindsay Williams will executive produce the TV series. Polly Williams, vp scripted development and Carolyn Newman, senior vp scripted programming, will oversee the project for eOne.
The Lying Game is being published by Simon & Schuster’s Gallery Books. Ware is represented by Shari Smiley at The Gotham Group and by Eve White of Eve White Literary Agency in the U.K.