Marshall's YA thriller optioned for film and TV

The team who launched the "Twilight" and "The Hunger Games" franchises have acquired the film and TV rights to Rules for Vanishing (Walker) by Kate Alice Marshall.

Rob Friedman’s Ascendant Entertainment has joined forces with Patrick Wachsberger of Picture Perfect Federation for the project to buy the rights in a deal struck with ICM Partners and JABberwocky Literary Agency. 

Former Lionsgate co-chairmen Friedman and Wachsberger, who also launched "Divergent", said they are "excited" by the project. 

Wachsberger said: “We are so happy to have found a YA novel that got us just as excited as the iconic material we pursued in the early days of our partnership. It’s a bonus to work with Rob again, and we can’t wait to move forward on this project together.” 

Rules for Vanishing, a genre-bending YA thriller novel, was published by Walker Books in the UK and Viking Children's in the US earlier this year.

"Once a year, a road appears in the woods at midnight and the ghost of Lucy Gallows beckons, inviting those who are brave enough to play her game. If you win, you escape with your life," reads the synopsis. "It’s almost a year since Becca went missing. Everyone else has given up searching for her, but her sister, Sara, knows she disappeared while looking for Lucy Gallows. Determined to find her, Sara and her closest friends enter the woods. But something more sinister than ghosts lurks on the road, and not everyone will survive."

Rules for Vanishing is Marshall's second book. Her first, I Am Still Alive, is being adapted into a feature by Lori Evans Taylor. Universal and Pearl Street Films are attached to produce, with Ben Affleck set to star in the film, according to Deadline.