EXCLUSIVE: Armory Films has optioned the rights to Charlie Donlea’s The Girl Who Was Taken, with brothers Brandon and Justin Weber attached to pen the screenplay.
The novel has sold over 1M copies worldwide, and it currently ranks as the #25 best-selling paperback novel on Amazon worldwide. This marks the second book to screen adaptation for the Weber brothers, who are also behind the Twenty Years Later series, which was Deadline exclusively reported in 2023.
The Girl Who Was Taken follows high school seniors Megan McDonald and Nicole Cutty, who are abducted from a small town in North Carolina. When Megan miraculously reappears two weeks later, with no sign of Nicole, questions arise about the circumstances that truly lead to Nicole’s disappearance.
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Chris Lemole and Tim Zajaros of Armory Films will produce, with Brandon and Justin Weber, and author Charlie Donlea serving as executive producers.
Founded in 2013 by Christopher Lemole and Tim Zajaros, Armory Films is a film finance and production company that creates, develops, produces, and finances content like The Peanut Butter Falcon starring Dakota Johnson and Shia LaBoeuf, Arctic starring Mads Mikkelsen and Mudbound from writer/director Dee Rees. Armory Films is currently in post-production on Easy’s Waltz from writer/director Nic Pizzolatto, with Vince Vaughn, Al Pacino, Kate Mara, and Simon Rex among the major names set to star.
The Weber Brothers Brandon and Justin are currently adapting another of Donlea’s novels Twenty Years Later for television with Impossible Dream Entertainment (Day Shift, Get Out, BlacKkKlansman) and Lazy Mary Pictures producing. Adam Arkin (The Offer, The Night Agent, Succession) is directing and executive producing the series. The Weber Brothers are also currently in development on Flight 420, an action comedy with Michael Tiddes (Half Baked: Totally High, Naked, A Haunted House 1 & 2) directing, as well as Case-Hardened, a heist thriller, with Traction (Red Right Hand) producing.
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