Warner Bros. to give Little Brown's "Beautiful Creatures" book series the big screen treatment

"Beautiful Creatures," the first in a new Young Adult series about witches, hit store
shelves today. Warner Bros. has already picked up the movie rights. Photo: Little, Brown

Teenage fantasy fare seems to be the subject matter of choice these days both in Young Adult literature and in Hollywood. And of course, with plenty of book rights being plucked up by movie studios, many YA reads are finding their way to the big screen.

The latest to move from page to screen is Kami Garcia's and Margaret Stohl's Beautiful Creatures -- which has barely hit store shelves and is already being plucked up by a hot shot movie studio.

Beautiful Creatures, the first in a five-part series, was released just today (12/1/09) by publishers at Little, Brown. (The same folks who published Stephenie Meyer's mega-hit Twilight Saga, now a blossoming movie franchise, as well).

Now, Variety reports that Warner Brothers has snapped up the rights to the books, a sort of coming-of-age romance about teenage witches. Of course, Warner Brothers already has a successful (and that's putting it lightly) book adaptation franchise under its belt with Harry Potter. But with that series about to wrap-up, it's no surprise the studio is looking for it's next big cash cow.

It's also not surprising that Warner Brothers would turn to the publishers behind Twilight, which is quickly becoming the next biggest movie franchise around (and giving Harry Potter a run for its money as far as box office records are concerned. Just last week, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" beat the record for a midnight opening previously held by "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.")

Little, Brown is promoting Beautiful Creatures as another one of its "Books with Bite," right alongside Twilight and James Patterson's Witch & Wizard. Meanwhile, you can read the official synopsis here and check out the book trailer by scrolling down:

There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

Meanwhile, according to Variety, Richard LaGravanese is writing the script and will direct the movie version, with Erwin Stoff producing.

If you liked this article, also check out:

• "Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse" - a fantasy adventure for fans of "Harry Potter" and the like
• Maggie Stiefvater's "Linger" (the sequel to "Shiver") gets a cover and first paragraph revealed
• Waiting for the next installment of "The Twilight Saga"? Sink your teeth into these vampire books
• Move over vampires -- witches could be the next big thing with an adaptation of teen book "Wicked"
• Maggie Stiefvater's "Shiver" could be coming soon to the big screen
• Fourth book in “Mortal Instruments” series coming in 2011
• Supernatural books 'Wicked Lovely' and 'The Passage' in the works for new movie adaptations