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‘Stanford Prison’ Director Kyle Alvarez Boards YA Thriller ‘Acceleration’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Kyle Patrick Alvarez (“The Stanford Prison Experiment”) will direct an adaptation of Graham McNamee’s YA thriller “Acceleration” for Theresa Park’s Pow! Productions and Peter Safran, Variety has learned exclusively.

Alvarez will direct from a script he’s adapting with Adam Shazar. “Stanford Prison Experiment” debuted in January at Sundance, where it won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award.

“Acceleration,” published in 2003, unfolds over a blisteringly hot summer, during which the 17-year-old protagonist is working in the bowels of the Transit Authority’s Lost and Found department, cataloging misplaced belongings. When he stumbles across a lost diary filled with the twisted secrets of a serial killer, he quickly realizes the killer is stalking his prey in the subway and that his next victim has already been chosen.

Park, a longtime literary agent who is also Nicholas Sparks’ producing partner, recently founded Pow! to develop and produce her own book-based film projects. She and Safran jointly produced with Sparks on “The Choice,” which Lionsgate is slated to release in February.

Safran produced “The Conjuring” and is on board “The Conjuring 2″ and James Gunn’s “The Belco Experiment.”

Variety reported in March that IFC had acquired rights to “The Stanford Prison Experiment” (pictured above), starring Billy Crudup, Ezra Miller, Tye Sheridan and Michael Angarano.

Alvarez’s previous film, “C.O.G.,” also premiered in competition at Sundance and was acquired by Focus World. Alvarez is represented by UTA and by manager Chris Davey.

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