Alfonso Cuarón attached to produce THE RADLEYS, the forthcoming novel by award-winning author Matt Haig

Alfonso Cuarón, acclaimed director of Y Tu Mamá También, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Children of Men, is attached to produce the feature adaptation of Matt Haig’s latest novel, The Radleys.

Set in a pretty English village, the Radleys – Peter, Helen and their children Clara and Rowan – are a seemingly average, moderately dysfunctional family. But Peter and Helen hold a dark secret which their children have yet to find out – they are a family of abstaining vampires. When one night Clara finds herself driven to commit a bloodthirsty act of violence, her parents realise the truth can no longer be hidden.

Cuarón who described the novel as “funny, scary and wickedly familiar” was immediately taken with it. He said: “Reading The Radleys proved an unpredictable experience, its themes crafted through a pleasurable switch of tones. On the one hand it’s a parochial comedy of manners in a dull suburban setting, but it quickly gathers poison and then effortlessly enters the supernatural without ever betraying its worldly concerns.”

Originally commissioned and conceived as a feature script for the UK Film Council’s Development Fund, Haig re-worked the story into a novel with cross-over appeal, which literary agent Caradoc King at AP Watt sold to editor Francis Bickmore at Canongate Books. The screenwriting and film deal were handled by Christine Glover, also of AP Watt.

Excitement surrounding Haig’s novel is fast-growing, with rights having already been sold in 11 countries. First publishing in the UK on 1st July 2010, The Radleys will be released simultaneously in both adult and YA editions in a unique collaboration between Canongate and Walker Books. The novel will be published in the US later in the year by Free Press.

About the author:
Matt Haig was born in 1975. His debut novel, The Last Family in England, was a UK bestseller. The Dead Fathers Club, an update of Hamlet featuring an eleven-year-old boy, and The Possession of Mr Cave, a horror story about an overprotective father, are also being made into films and have been translated into numerous languages. He is also the author of the Nestle prize-winning children’s novel Shadow Forest, and its sequel, The Runaway Troll.

For further information about the novel contact Preena Gadher at Riot Communications on 020 3174 0118 / preena@riotcommunications.com

For further information about the film contact Christine Glover on 020 7405 6774 / cglover@APWatt.co.uk

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