Alfonso Cuarón to produce film adaptation of Matt Haig's 'The Radleys'

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'The Radleys,' by UK best-selling author Matt Haig, is slated for a film adaptation with Alfonso Cuarón as producer, according to an April 22 press release. The book, as yet unpublished, is due out in the UK in July, with additional release dates to follow in several other countries.

Set in an English village, The Radleys focuses on a "seemingly average, moderately dysfunctional family. But Peter and Helen hold a dark secret which their children have yet to find out - they are a family of abstaining vampires. When one night Clara finds herself driven to commit a bloodthirsty act of violence, her parents realise the truth can no longer be hidden."

Cuarón, who directed Y Tu Mamá También and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, called the book "funny, scary and wickedly familiar... On the one hand it's a parochial comedy of manners in a dull suburban setting, but it quickly gathers poison and then effortlessly enters the supernatural without ever betraying its worldly concerns."

The Radleys will see its first print run on July 1 in the UK, where it will be released simultaneously in both adult and young adult editions. In the US, it is due out on December 14, and 11 countries total reportedly have rights to publish the title.

Matt Haig is the author of UK bestseller The Last Family in England (called The Labrador Pact in the US), which tells the story of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 with dogs as the protagonists. The film rights to that novel have reportedly been sold to Brad Pitt's Plan B production company. Haig's other children's books include Shadow Forest and The Runaway Troll.