Universal grabs the rights to Riley Sager’s Final Girls thriller novel

Universal Pictures has been stalking the rights to author Riley Sager's Final Girls novel for quite some time, and today, the studio announced that they've finally managed to get their hands on the property. The film adaptation will be produced by Anonymous Content’s Nicole Clemens along with Sugar23’s Ashley Zalta and Michael Sugar. Universal’s director of development Chloe Yellin will oversee production for the studio.

(The above image is taken from the French horror film HAUTE TENSION)

The following synopsis is brought to you courtesy of Goodreads.com:

Ten years ago, college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie–scale massacre. In an instant, she became a member of a club no one wants to belong to—a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls. Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout's knife; Sam, who went up against the Sack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape Pine Cottage and the man she refers to only as Him. Now, the three girls are all attempting to put their nightmares behind them, and, with that, one another. Despite the media's attempts, they've never met.

Now, everything seems to be coming up Milhouse for Quincy. That is until Lisa, the first Final Girl, is found dead in her bathtub. Soon thereafter, Sam appears at Quincy's doorstep, and informs the third Final Girl that her life might once again be in danger. Blowing through Quincy's life like a whirlwind, Sam seems intent on making Quincy relive the past, with increasingly dire consequences, all of which makes Quincy question why Sam is really seeking her out. And when new details about Lisa's death come to light, Quincy's life becomes a race against time as she tries to unravel Sam's truths from her lies, evade the police and hungry reporters, and, most crucially, remember what really happened at Pine Cottage, before what was started ten years ago is finished.

I have it on good authority from several of my friends, as well as many of those who belong to JoBlo's MFC community that Sager's novel is a bloody good read. While I've yet to read a single page of the book myself, I must admit that my interest is piqued after doing a little research on the title. After all, who doesn't love a good Final Girl, right? When I think of that term, I fondly envision female characters the likes of Ellen Ripley of ALIEN; Laurie Strode of HALLOWEEN; Alice from FRIDAY THE 13th; and Sidney Prescott from SCREAM, among others. These are legendary female characters who've been through Hell and back and lived to tell the tale. Here's hoping that the adaptation of Final Girls is worthy of its illustrious title, when the film arrives farther down the line.