Killer Acquires Rights To Award-Winning, International Bestseller "Only Ever Yours"
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, Sept. 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The rights to Only Ever Yours, internationally bestselling novel, winner of the YA Book Prize, Eilís Dillon Award, and whose author was just named "the best YA fiction writer alive today" by The Guardian (9/2/15), have been acquired by Killer Content, Inc.
The book was first published in the United Kingdom by Quercus (2014), where it catapulted to bestseller status. Noted by various critics as "the book of the season," "brilliantly realized, utterly compelling," "an inevitable entrant on next year's most-banned books list," and written with "a scalpel," 30-year-old author Louise O'Neill's bold and original debut novel is set in a chilling "finishing school" for girls, amidst a society that uses information technology to institutionalize extreme standards of physical beauty and unquestioning conformity…or so it thinks.
As the intensity of their final year unfolds, the young women of The School, and the young men who pursue them, vie for supremacy even as they struggle to maintain a sense of self in a world that values strategic alliances above human connection. Only Ever Yours depicts a terrifying epidemic of identity loss, where the best and brightest lose sight of their individual value in the face of empty mantras about the necessity of perfection.
And what a timely story it is. As noted by The New York Times in July ("Suicide on Campus and the Pressure of Perfection" 07/27/15), college counseling centers have seen a 13 percent increase over the past two years in the incidence of severe psychological problems among students, namely anxiety and depression. Moreover, the national suicide rate among 15- to 24-year-olds has been increasing steadily. The article goes on to cite social psychologist Leon Festinger's social comparison theory, which posits that we try to determine our worth based on how we stack up against others, and connects this to our social media world, "where such comparisons take place on a screen with carefully curated depictions that don't provide the full picture. Mobile devices escalate the comparisons from occasional to nearly constant."
"Only Ever Yours, while dystopian in genre, may be closer to today's reality than adults recognize," said Adrienne Becker, CEO of Killer. "Today's young people struggle to define themselves on their own terms under the harsh glare of the information age Klieg lights. As a media professional and as a parent, I found this to be one of those rare stories compelling enough to bring to life as a major motion picture, and important enough that it deserves to be spread as widely as possible."
Killer Films, a division of Killer Content, is developing, financing and producing OEY as a motion picture in partnership with Two Brass Brads, a nonprofit that curates socially relevant media properties. Two Brass Brads, along with Killer's Glass Elevator division, is focusing its efforts on a multifaceted social impact campaign around OEY, addressing critical youth-centered social issues including gender equity, mental health, suicide prevention, and social media literacy.
"There is the potential to build a powerful engagement and impact campaign around the release of the film that will ignite a conversation, call the audience to action and leave a lasting impression," noted Rachel Gould, Executive Director of Two Brass Brads.
Killer, in partnership with Two Brass Brads, is also developing OEY as a television series.
Two Brass Brads Board Members Duane McLaughlin, Amber Ridinger-McLaughlin, and Philippe Hoerle-Guggenheim, will join with Killer to welcome O'Neill to New York tomorrow, September 9 to celebrate the U.S. launch of Only Ever Yours at the Hoerle-Guggenheim Gallery in New York City.
Along with O'Neill's North American publisher, Quercus, Killer will welcome the author to New York again on October 4, when she will receive the Eilís Dillon Award for a first children's book, appearing onstage at the awards ceremony in conversation with actress and activist Jacqueline Emerson (The Hunger Games and She's So Boss). O'Neill will also make two bookstore appearances during that visit to discuss her groundbreaking book and sign copies for fans, on October 1 (at Brooklyn's WORD bookstore) and on October 3 (at the Park Slope Barnes & Noble).
KILLER CONTENT is a media and technology company producing Award-winning, multiplatform entertainment with a curated group of storytellers and brands. The company is comprised of Killer Films, Glass Elevator Media, and Viewur. Combined, Killer's properties have earned over 70 Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe Nominations, most recently for Still Alice. Killer's Carol, directed by Todd Haynes, will be released on November 20. (www.killercontentco.com)
Only Ever Yours joins the upcoming Killer slate which includes the feature film Wonderstruck, based on the novel by Brian Selznick, and the Amazon television series Z, in pilot production, based on the novel Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler. Killer's Viewur division is developing an online creative arts learning platform tied to its recently-certified MFA in Film program with Stony Brook University.
TWO BRASS BRADS is a newly launched nonprofit media company dedicated to the development, financing and production of socially relevant, commercially viable and engaging content. By provoking open dialogue, igniting awareness and encouraging advocacy of cultural, environmental, and historical issues through artful storytelling, Two Brass Brads endeavors to rewrite the social script and create a global campaign for meaningful change.
QUERCUS publishes a wide range of high-quality commercial, literary, and translated fiction and nonfiction under the imprints Quercus, MacLehose Press, Quercus Children's Books, Jo Fletcher Books, and Heron Books. Quercus is a Hachette company.
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150907/264175
SOURCE Killer Content, Inc.
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