“The Merciless” is one step closer to terrifying audiences on the big screen. Hannah Macpherson is in “final talks” to helm Lionsgate’s adaptation of Danielle Vega’s 2014 horror novel of the same name, Deadline reports. “Pretty Little Liars” creator and showrunner Marlene King penned the script and is serving as exec producer.
The book “centers on a new girl at a small-town high school who is taken in by the popular clique, only to have them compel her into joining them in a dangerous exorcism of a punky, rebellious classmate,” Deadline writes. Fans of “Mean Girls,” “The Exorcist,” and “The Craft” take note: It seems as though “The Merciless” will be right up your alley.
King has plenty of experience writing about cliques — in addition to her work on teen horror/mystery series “Pretty Little Liars,” King penned the script for Lesli Linka Glatter’s 1995 coming-of-age film “Now and Then,” a lovingly rendered portrait of four female friends. Macpherson would come to the project with a background in horror: She wrote and directed “Sickhouse,” a horror thriller released earlier this year. Macperson has also helmed a number of shorts, and wrote and directed the upcoming feature “Those Who Wait.” The thriller in post-production.
“Alloy Entertainment packaged and will produce the film, with Alloy president Les Morgenstein and Alloy Features SVP Elysa Dutton producing,” Deadline notes.
“Pretty Little Liars” resumes its seventh and final season in April, 2017 on Freeform.
