EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Television has acquired the rights to The Forbidden Game trilogy of horror YA novels by LJ Smith for Greg Berlanti’s studio-based Berlanti Productions to adapt as TV series. Smith is the author of The Vampire Diaries novels, which were turned by WBTV into a hit TV series that aired for eight seasons on the CW.
WBTV/Berlanti Productions landed the rights to The Forbidden Game in a competitive situation. The series adaptation will be executive produced by Berlanti Productions’ Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and David Madden. Search is underway for a writer.
The Forbidden Game is a teen horror trilogy of novels in which a girl named Jenny and six friends enter a Jumanji-like game that drops them into different shadow worlds to fight off their worst nightmares, or die and have their souls forever imprisoned. The stakes are set by Julian, an enigmatic blue-eyed boy who moves freely between worlds. Jenny is determined to save herself and her friends, but when she starts to fall in love with Julian her loyalties are tested beyond anything she has ever experienced.
The Forbidden Game trilogy, published in 1994, consists of the books The Hunter, The Chase and The Kill.
WBTV adaptations of two other book series by Smith have gone on the air, The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle, which aired on the CW for one season.
The deal for the author was made on behalf of The Bent Agency by Hotchkiss Daily & Associates.