Director Mark Waters has had success adapting both fantastical kids books (The Spiderwick Chronicles) and teen titles (Mean Girls) before. With young adult adaptations turning out to be proven moneymakers, it seems sensible for him to try his hand at one. So now he’s attached to** Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters**.
Heathers scribe Daniel Waters (yes, Mark’s older brother) has adapted the script from Richelle Mead’s six-volume series, which follows Rose Hathaway, a 17-year-old girl with a mental and spiritual bond with best pal Lissa, a vampire. The pair attends a special school for the fang club types who are trying to cling to their humanity, even as other toothy beings become more feral.
“It was the best first draft I had ever read, and that includes other screenplays by my brother,” Mark Waters says in a statement picked up by Deadline. “This is a dream project for us, since we have wanted to work together for so long. Richelle’s mythology and the world she creates is so real and her voice so clear. These kids have real life, modern day problems. And they drink blood.” So exactly like regular kids... then. Tch. Kids.
Zoey Deutch (above), soon to be seen in Beautiful Creatures, will be Rose, while Australia’s Lucy Fry is Lissa. Russian actor Danila Kozlovski is playing a character named Dimitri. Waters is set to shoot the movie this summer, and if it’s a success, there are still five books – and two so far in a spin-off series – to keep the franchise ticking over.