Icon Productions hasoptioned the rights to Libba Bray's best-selling trilogy about four rebelliousteenagers in Victorian England who discover a portal to another world.

The UK's Firstsight Films will partner with Icon and director Charles Sturridgeon the first title in the trilogy, A Great And Terrible Beauty.

Icon president Bruce Davey and Firstsight's Sturridge will produce and LindsayWilliams and Ellen Goldsmith-Vein of The Gotham Group will serve as executiveproducers.

A Great And Terrible Beautycentres on Gemma Doyle, a free spirit brought up in India who witnesses thedeath of her mother and is sent to a repressive boarding school in England.

There she uncovers the mystery of her mother's death and the conspiracy thatlies behind it as she enters a parallel universe that endows her and herfriends with great powers with terrible consequences.

Sturridge brought the project to Icon and will oversee its development alongwith Davey.

David Miercort, Icon's executive vice president of business affairs and generalcounsel, negotiated the deal with Lindsay Williams of The Gotham Group andAnthony Jones of Peters Fraser & Dunlop in the UK on behalf of Sturridge.