Lionsgate in Talks to Adapt YA Novel ‘Blackbird’

After the mega-success of The Twilight Saga for Summit Entertainment – a subsidiary of Lionsgate – and the equally massive draw for its current Hunger Games franchise, it appears Lions Gate is once again plugging into the Young Adult craze with another adaptation of a popular novel.

The studio is nearing a deal to acquire the rights to Blackbird, a YA novel from author Anna Carey. The novel follows a young girl who wakes up on the tracks of the subway in L.A. without any memory. All she has to go by are the things in her possession, including a backpack with clothes, money, a phone number with instructions not to call the police, and a tattoo on her wrist of a blackbird and a code. The one thing she can recall with certainty is that somebody is trying to kill her.

Blackbird differs from the aforementioned Twilight and Hunger Games adaptations in that it is a standalone novel – having just been released last September – that isn’t yet part of a series of books. It is uncertain at this point if there are plans by Anna Carey or publisher HarperTeen to continue the story.

Danny Mackey is in talks to adapt Blackbird for Lionsgate. Mackey’s work includes writing for the web series Aim High, as well as adapting the not-yet released School of Fear, and writing a comedy pilot, Jackass of All Trades, for TBS.