Reese Witherspoon, Lionsgate Teaming on Fantasy Trilogy ‘The Outliers’

Lionsgate has acquired feature film rights to Kimberly McCreight’s upcoming trilogy “The Outliers” with Todd Lieberman, David Hoberman, Reese Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea producing.

Lionsgate touted the deal as marking another move into becoming a dominant player the young-adult genre following the successes of “The Twilight Saga” and “The Hunger Games.”

Story centers on a young woman who’s best friend goes missing and turns up 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. She joins the Outliers but soon finds herself running for her life.

HarperCollins acquired North American publishing rights to McCreight’s upcoming trilogy earlier this year. The first book in the series will be published in late 2015. McCreight’s debut novel “Reconstructing Amelia” appeared on the New York Times hardbound bestseller list the first week after publication.

Witherspoon and Papandrea are producing through their Pacific Standard shingle. Lieberman and Hoberman are producing through their Mandeville Films banner, under which they produced Summit Entertainment’s “Warm Bodies” along with Papandrea.

“Warm Bodies” took in $117 million worldwide last year.

Erik Feig and Meredith Milton will oversee the project for the studio. Laura Cray will oversee the project on behalf of Mandeville Films. Robert Melnik negotiated the deal on behalf of the studio.

McCreight is represented by Resolution and Marly Rusoff & Associates Inc.

– Variety