Miguel Arteta to direct Elle Fanning in YA romance ‘All the Bright Places’

Miguel Arteta is returning to the world of misfit teens. The “Youth in Revolt” filmmaker will direct Elle Fanning in an adaptation of Jennifer Niven’s young-adult romance novel “All the Bright Places,” the producers announced Monday.

Niven, the founder of the teen-oriented online literary magazine Germ, is adapting her book for the screen. The story centers on Violet (Fanning), a popular high schooler who is reeling from her older sister’s death and connects with a troubled classmate after a chance encounter.

Demarest Media will finance and produce the picture alongside the Mazur/Kaplan Co. Production is slated to begin in the spring.

Arteta first made a name for himself directing darkly comic art-house fare such as “Star Maps,” “Chuck and Buck” and “The Good Girl,” but he has also tackled adolescent high jinks (the aforementioned “Youth”) and a throwback live-action family film (“Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”).

“All the Bright Places” has drawn comparisons to John Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars,” whose big-screen adaptation grossed more than $300 million worldwide and ignited a mini-boom of YA romances, such as “If I Stay” and the just-released “Paper Towns.” But as the latter film’s soft opening attests, “Fault”-level success has been elusive.

Follow @ogettell for movie news