Illustrations by Jim Kay, “A Monster Calls” Written by Patrick Ness

River Road Entertainment, Participant Media, Lionsgate International, and Focus Features have teamed to finance and distribute Apache’s production of “The Orphanage” director Juan Antonio Bayona’s next film, “A Monster Calls”, based on the award-winning children’s fantasy novel by Patrick Ness of the “Chaos Walking” trilogy.

The film will be produced by Belen Atienza (The Impossible, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Orphanage) and is slated for a fall 2016 release. It will be distributed by Lionsgate world wide.

“A Monster Calls” is a visually spectacular drama about a young boy who attempts to deal with his mother’s illness and the bullying of his classmates by escaping into a fantastical world of monsters and fairy tales that deal with courage, loss and faith.

Ness wrote the novel based on an original idea by the late Siobhan Dowd. He and illustrator Jim Kay won Britain’s prestigious Carnegie Medal and Greenaway Medal in 2012, presented to the year’s best children’s literature in the UK. Ness is adapting the screenplay from his novel.