Mandate Pictures has optioned the film rights to The GhoulyBoys, based onChristopher's children's comic books that were initially published by SlaveLabor Graphics Publishing in 2004.

The stories track the fortunes of four misfit young monsters whofind it hard to integrate with human children and embark upon an adventure oftheir own.

Los Angeles-based management/production company Benderspink,coming off a busy 2005 with credits including A History Of Violence and Red Eye, will produce the project.

Mandate's vice president of production Scott Coleman will overseedevelopment with Benderspink's Vanessa Scott.

Jeff Frankel of Colden McKuin & Frankel negotiated the deal onbehalf of Christopher with Mandate's executive vice president of businessaffairs Rob McEntegart and Benderspink's Rick Genow.

"Christopher creatively captures the self-doubt, social rejectionand alienation felt by today's youth with great ease and innocence," Mandatepresident of motion pictures Nathan Kahane said.

"We are enthusiastic about collaborating with Christopher and ourfriends JC and Chris [Spink and Bender respectively] on their innovative visionfor a feature film."

'Christopher is a cutting edge talent,' Benderspink added. 'When we came across Ghouly Boys we felt like people must have when theysaw Tim Burton's Frankenweenie for the first time. It will also be great to finally work withNate and Joe [Drake, Mandate president].'