“Kill Your Darlings” director to helm “Wonder” YA bestseller adaptation

PanARMENIAN.Net - Kill Your Darlings writer-director John Krokidas will direct Lionsgate's YA adaptation Wonder, The Hollywood Reporter said.

The film is based on R.J. Palacio's best-selling 2012 novel about a 10-year-old named Auggie Pullman, whose facial difference has kept him from going to a mainstream school. Now he's entering fifth grade at Beecher Prep and just wants to fit in, but he'll have to teach everyone around him that, as always, we are more than meets the eye.

Jack Thorne wrote the screenplay for the film, which is produced by David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman via their Mandeville Films banner.

The book Wonder hit stores in February 2012 via Knopf Books for Young Readers, and has sold 2 million copies since its publication. It consistently ranked as a New York Times best seller since March 2012 and was listed for high-profile children's literature awards the Carnegie Medal and the UKLA Book Award.

Erik Feig, Gillian Bohrer and James Myers are overseeing the project on behalf of the studio. Robert Melnik, Lionsgate's executive vp business affairs, negotiated the deal on behalf of the studio.

Krokidas made his feature directorial debut with 2013's Kill Your Darlings, starring Daniel Radcliffe and Dane DeHaan. The film premiered at Sundance in 2013 to strong reviews, helping Krokidas to make a name for himself and get several more projects.

He's attached to direct Young Americans, which will reunite him with Radcliffe and De Haan, and he recently turned in his rewrite (with Austin Bunn) of High Rise for Fox 2000. He's also attached to direct Standard Happiness Package for Fox Searchlight.