Drew Barrymore to Produce and Direct Heist Society

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=63070

Warner Bros. Pictures has picked up the film rights to "Heist Society," author Ally Carter's young adult thriller novel hitting stores on Tuesday, February 9. The Hollywood Reporter says Shauna Cross (Whip It) will write the script with Denise Di Novi producing with Di Novi Pictures' Alison Greenspan.

The following is how publisher Hyperion Books for Children describes the novel:

When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her to the Louvre...to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria...to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own—scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind.

Unfortunately, leaving "the life" for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected. Soon, Kat’s friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring her back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has good reason: a powerful mobster’s art collection has been stolen, and he wants it returned. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat’s father isn’t just on the suspect list, he is the list.

Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help. For Kat there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it’s a spectacularly impossible job? She’s got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family’s (very crooked) history—and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.

The trade adds that while in the book the protagonist is in her teens attending a boarding school, the studio is going to age the adaptation a notch so that the characters are in their early 20s.

Smart idea to up the ages of the characters, I imagine a lot of young actresses will be interested in the lead role.

 

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=79182

Source: The Hollywood Reporter
June 30, 2011

Drew Barrymore will direct and produce Heist Society for Warner Bros. Pictures. The movie is an adaptation of the novel by Ally Carter and will be scripted by Shauna Cross (Whip It). Denise Di Novi and Di Novi Pictures' Alison Greenspan are also producing the the film.

The following is how publisher Hyperion Books for Children describes the novel:

When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her to the Louvre...to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria...to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own—scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind.

Unfortunately, leaving "the life" for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected. Soon, Kat’s friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring her back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has good reason: a powerful mobster’s art collection has been stolen, and he wants it returned. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat’s father isn’t just on the suspect list, he is the list.

Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help. For Kat there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it’s a spectacularly impossible job? She’s got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family’s (very crooked) history—and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

I've been wanting Drew Barrymore to direct again since Whip It. I'm interested.