EXCLUSIVE: Maddie Ziegler (My Old Ass) and Levi Miller (Kraven the Hunter) are set to star in Shiver, a feature adaptation of the New York Times bestselling YA fantasy novel by Maggie Stiefvater.

Claire McCarthy (Ophelia) will direct. Andy Fickman had been attached to a prior iteration of the project, as we first reported.

Currently in production in Vancouver, the film follows Grace, who was attacked by a pack of wolves as a child. However, one of them — a yellow-eyed wolf — saved her, creating an inexplicable bond between them. Years later, she meets a young man named Sam with the exact same yellow eyes and immediately feels a connection to him. Their love story unfolds against the backdrop of mystical events, mysterious disappearances, and intrigues that reveal to Grace the true nature of Sam and his connection to the wolves. At the same time, as winter approaches, Sam must fight to hold on to his humanity — or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

The first title in Stiefvater’s globally best-selling series The Wolves of Mercy Falls, Shiver spent more than 40 weeks on The New York Times Best-Seller list. McCarthy and Jett Tattersall (Companion) penned the adaptation of the book, published by Scholastic in 2009.

Simple House Films’ Addam Bramich (Zipline, Poker Face), Ryan Hamilton (Zipline, Hotel Mumbai), and Volodymyr Artemenko (Ice Fall, Zipline) are producing alongside CatchLight Studios’ Jeanette Volturno (Heretic, Invisible Man), as well as Ziegler. The film is being eyed as the first in a new franchise by Simple House Films, which launched this year.

Currently, Ziegler can be seen starring alongside Maisy Stella in the critically acclaimed Sundance comedy My Old Ass from Megan Park, which Amazon MGM Studios has released to streaming following its limited theatrical debut in September. Recently completing production on the action-thriller Ballerina Overdrive, her other film credits include Megan Park’s The Fallout and Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story.

Soon to be seen starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Russell Crowe in the anticipated Sony/Marvel pic Kraven the Hunter, out December 13, Miller also recently shot the lead of the new Disney+ reboot pilot of Witch Mountain. Other projects of late include Tyson Wade Johnston’s critically acclaimed indie Streamline as well as Jordan Prince-Wright’s Before Dawn.

McCarthy is an Australian filmmaker coming off The Colour Room, an indie drama starring Phoeve Dynevor, Matthew Goode, and Kerry Fox. Other past directorial credits include Ophelia, starring Daisy Ridley; drama The Turning; romantic drama The Waiting City, starring Radha Mitchell and Joel Edgerton; and series Domina and The Luminaries.

Ziegler is represented by WME, Rothman/Andrés Entertainment, and McKuin Frankel Whitehead; Miller by Verve, Rogue Management, Eaton Management, and Felker Toczek Suddleson; McCarthy by Gersh, RGM Artists, Sohigian Production Management, and Gochman Law Group; Catchlight Studios by Vervel and Stiefvater by Angela Cheng Caplan of Cheng Caplan Company, Richard Pine of InkWell Management, and Joel VanderKloot of VanderKloot Law.

Source: Deadline Hollywood