New Line gets movie rights to young-adult novel ‘The Raven Boys’

As Hollywood continues its quest to find the next “Hunger Games,” New Line Cinema has acquired the rights to Maggie Stiefvater’s young adult novel “The Raven Boys,” with Akiva Goldsman (“A Beautiful Mind”) on board to produce.

The book, which is set for release Sept. 18, is the first title in the four-book “Raven Cycle” series, which centers on sensible 16-year-old Blue Sargent. The offspring of psychic parents, Blue didn’t inherit their higher-level gifts, but something is unusual about the girl: She’s been told that if she kisses her true love, he will die.

Although she’s steered clear of the opposite sex, she meets two high-schoolers, nicknamed the Raven Boys, at a pizza parlor where she works part time. The inevitable love triangle ensues, tinged with murder and Welsh mythology.

The studio is currently in the process of hiring a screenwriter.

The property is not the first of author Stiefvater’s to be purchased by Hollywood. Last year, Warner Bros. optioned the 30-year-old’s book on mythological flesh-eating horses, “The Scorpio Races,” for David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith’s KatzSmith Productions to produce.

Stiefvater is also the author of the bestselling “Shiver” trilogy.

The Times’ Susan Carpenter said of the author’s latest, “In a young-adult market crowded with copycats, it’s refreshing to find a book that blazes a path as unique as Maggie Stiefvater’s ‘The Raven Boys.’ ”

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