Paramount Pictures has announced that they have purchased the screen rights to The Diviners, an upcoming novel from New York Times bestselling author Libba Bray. Even though the novel has not yet been released, they are taking a page from several other companies and optioning a novel before anyone else gets the chance.

Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage will produce the film, under their Fake Empire banner.  Bray will adapt the screenplay herself, in addition to acting as executive producer.

Set in the 1920s, the book is about a group of young New Yorkers with mysterious powers, who play a role in a series of occult-based murders in the city.  The Diviners will be published in September by Little Brown Books.  It will be the first in a four-part series.

Bray also wrote the New York Times bestselling Gemma Doyle trilogy and the Michael L. Printz Award-winning Going Bovine and Beauty Queens.

View the official plot summary for The Diviners below:

“Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City–and she is pos-i-toot-ly thrilled. New York is the city of speakeasies, shopping, and movie palaces! Soon enough, Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfield girls and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is Evie has to live with her Uncle Will, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult–also known as “The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies.” When a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer–if he doesn’t catch her first.”

The novel will be released September 18th, 2012.

It should be noted that this novel and movie should not be confused with the novel and movie of the same name written by Margaret Lawrence.