EXCLUSIVE: The upcoming Carrie Arcos novel Skywatchers as been optioned by The Gotham Group, with Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters and Carnival Row director Thor Freudenthal attached to helm the feature film adaptation. The Gotham Group CEO Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Eric Robinson are set to produce, with Peter McHugh executive producing.
The book, set to publish next summer via Penguin Random House imprint Philomel Books, is based on the real-life Operation Skywatch program established under President Truman and follows a group of teens in 1952 Monterey, CA., who volunteer to help keep round-the-clock eyes on the sky. When one of them goes missing, the others must figure out what’s happening and why.
Arcos’ previous novels include 2012’s Out of Reach, which was a National Book Award for Young
People’s Literature finalist. She also wrote 2014’s There Will Come a Time and last year’s We Are All That’s Left, which depicts the horrors of the 1990s Bosnian conflict juxtaposed against a fictionalized terrorist attack in Rhode Island.
Freudenthal, who directed the pilot for Amazon’s Carnival Row and will return for the first episode of Season 2, most recently directed Words on Bathroom Walls for LD Entertainment, starring Charlie Plummer, Andy Garcia, Taylor Russell and Anna-Sophia Robb. His other credits include Hotel for Dogs and Diary of a Wimpy Kid in film, and The Tick, The Expanse, The Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl on TV.
WME negotiated the film deal, while Kerry Sparks at Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency
negotiated on behalf of Arcos for worldwide English rights. Freudenthal is repped by The Gotham Group and Gersh.
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