U.S.-based Asian film financier, Ivanhoe Pictures has acquired film rights to China-set action adventure novel “The Walled City.”
The book was published earlier this week by by Little Brown Books for Young Readers was written by ‘young adult’ author Ryan Graudin “(All That Glows”.)
The story follows three teenagers who are fighting to survive and escape a lawless, walled city, a fictional version of Kowloon’s Walled City in Hong Kong.
Ivanhoe’s John Penotti, Kelly Carmichael and Josh Cohen are producing and overseeing development. They pitch the story as “The Hunger Games” meets “Maze Runner.”
'Ryan has created such an exciting and inventive world with rich characters and an evocative setting that we know audiences will really connect with”, said Ivanhoe CEO Penotti.
The deals were negotiated by Tracey Adams (Adams Literary) and Stephen Moore (Paul Kohner, Inc.) on behalf of Ryan Graudin and Brian Kornreich on behalf of Ivanhoe Pictures.
Ivanhoe has a $130mil co-financing pact with Fox International Productions, concentrating on select local language pictures in China, India, Korea, Japan and Taiwan. More recently, the company inked a deal in partnership with Blumhouse Pictures and India’s Phantom Films to produce a slate of ten Hindi language genre films.