The Gotham Group Acquires Rights To YA Novels ‘Their Vicious Games’ & ‘That Night in the Library’

EXCLUSIVE: The Gotham Group has secured the motion picture and television rights to two YA novels.

Their Vicious Games, a YA novel from debut author Joelle Wellington, focuses on a teen desperate to regain her Ivy League acceptance. She enters an elite competition only to discover the stakes aren’t just high, they’re deadly. The novel publishes July 25 from Simon & Schuster.

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Quressa Robinson of Folio Literary Management, while at Nelson Literary Agency, sold North American rights at auction in a major six-figure deal.

That Night in the Library, from author Eva Jurczyk, centers around seven students who sneak into the basement of a rare books library on the eve of graduation to carry out a ritual borrowed from the ancient Greeks that will free them from fear. But when the lights go out and one student dies, the group must figure out how to survive the night while trapped with a murderer.

The Sourcebooks title publishes spring/summer 2024.

The Gotham Group has a track record in developing high profile IP for film and television, such as Jerry Spinelli’s beloved YA classic Stargirl, now a franchise for Disney+; The Maze Runner, by author James Dashner, which spawned three motion pictures earning $1 Billion at the worldwide box office; and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson book series, now being rebooted for television.

The Gotham Group shepherded the script for Juror No. 2 for 15 years as it wound its way through Hollywood before landing with Clint Eastwood and Warner Bros. It also packaged the dystopian thriller By All and set it up at Warner Bros., with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II set to star and Steve Caple Jr. on board to direct.

It will also produce I Am Sybil starring Elle Fanning and Sarah Paulson, based on the book Sybil Exposed by Debbie Nathan.

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