New Line and Paramount nab novels

New Line Cinema have snapped up the rights to Nicci French palm-dampener Land Of The Living – with LA Confidential scribbler James Ellroy set to adapt.

The tale revolves around a loose woman who falls into the clutches of a serial killer and is tortured, but somehow manages to survive. The heroine is then forced to investigate the ordeal alone after her friends and the police don’t believe her story.

Ellroy has just finished adapting his own book, The Night Watchman, and another of his novels, The Black Dahlia, is on its way to multiplexes later this year. Scarlett Johansson and Hilary Swank headline Brian De Palma's adaptation of Dahlia. Nicci French is the writing partnership of married Brit journalists Nicci Gerrard and Sean French.

Not to be outdone, Paramount have just snagged the rights to H.I.V.E., a young-adult novel from the typewriter of Mark Walden. The title comes from an acronym of Higher Institute of Villainous Education, while the plot sees a bunch of youngsters with a canny skill for wrongdoing turned into world-class super villains.

Keep those peepers trained at tf.com for any updates.