Warner Bros Pictures has acquired film rights to the children's book
Skulduggery Pleasant by Irish author Derek Landy.

The deal incorporates all future books in a potential nine-title series based on the contemporary Dublin-set tale about a skeleton
detective who works tirelessly to thwart the return of the Faceless
Ones.

The first novel was published six weeks after it sparked a global
bidding war before landing at HarperCollins.

'With all the positive buzz surrounding Skulduggery, it's an ideal
project for us to tackle,' Warner Bros production chief Jeff Robinov
said.

'We're looking forward to collaborating with our London creative
team to bring Derek's darkly witty book to the big screen.'

UK-based production vice president Ollie Madden brought the book in
and will oversee the project with executive vice president of
production Kevin McCormick.

Pete Czernin and Graham Broadbent of the UK's Blueprint Pictures are
attached to produce. They are represented by Bob Darwell of Sheppard
Mullin.