Sierra Pictures & Mr Mudd Set Ava Dellaria To Adapt ‘Obsidian’

EXCLUSIVE: Novelist/screenwriter Ava Dellaria will adapt Obsidian, the Jennifer L. Armentrout novel that Sierra Pictures will finance, and produce with Mr. Mudd’s Russ Smith and Lianne Halfon. Published in 2014 by  Entangled Publishing, the book is part of a five-volume series known as the Lux Series. Sierra/Affinity’s Sierra’s Nick Meyer and Marc Schaberg will be executive producers and handle international sale.

In Obsidian, bookish Katy Swartz moves with her mother to small-town West Virginia, resigning herself to thick accents and a boring life. She is hopeful after meeting her neighbors who are a shot of life, and the brother and sister tandem becomes even more interesting when it turns out they are aliens. When she falls for the brother and he touches her, it marks her as a homing device for an army of extraterrestrial bad guys.

Screenwriter Dellaria adapted her own novel Love Letters To The Dead for Fox 2000 and was associate producer on The Perks of Being A Wallflower, which Mr. Mudd produced. That producing shingle, launched by Halfon, Smith and John Malkovich, just produced the Jean Marc-Vallee-directed Demolition, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts and Chris Cooper, and will be released next April by Fox Searchlight.

Sierra/Affinity’s Kelly McCormick is overseeing, and Dellaria is repped by CAA and Rob Weisbach Creative Management, with Armentrout repped by ICM Partners.