Marlene King Developing TV Adaptation Of Elle Kennedy Novel ‘Thornbird’ At Hulu

EXCLUSIVE: Hulu is currently in development on a TV adaptation of the Elle Kennedy (Off Campus) novel Thornbird, with Marlene King (Pretty Little Liars, Now & Then) set as writer and executive producer of the 20th Television project. Thornbird is a coming-of-age thriller about a girl at the center of her own true-crime mystery. Kennedy will also exec produce alongside King and Lauren Wagner.

In the series, ten years after her father—the infamous serial killer Gabriel Thorn—was caught, 17-year-old Ryan Shipley is back in her childhood hometown of Starling, Tennessee, trying to lay low. No one can know who she really is. No one can know the truth about her past. All Ryan wants is a chance to live as a normal teenager, maybe even fall in love.

The book is the first title released by Kennedy under the pseudonym E. Kennedy, and follows one girl’s race to solve the crimes of her family’s twisted past before it’s too late. Published on June 30, Thornbird debuted on the New York Times Bestseller list. Kennedy is best known for being the author of the Off Campus book series, which was adapted for TV at Prime Video, and is currently in production on Season 2. Season 1 premiered in May and reached 36 million viewers worldwide in its first 12 days of release. It now stands as Prime Video’s third most-watched debut series of all time. Her novel Girl Abroad is also in development for the small screen at Netflix, from Sorry for Your Loss creator Kit Steinkellner. Kennedy is repped by Independent Artist Group, Circle Management and Production, Park, Fine, & Brower Literary Management and Toczek Suddleson Law Group LLP.

King is a writer, producer, and director known for writing popular coming-of-age stories, like her hit Freeform series Pretty Little Liars, which she developed based on the Sara Shepard book series and served as its showrunner. The TV series, which ran for 7 seasons, tackled topics such as sexuality and mental illness. King also penned the screenplay for the coming-of-age film Now & Then. Her additional credits include Just My Luck, If These Walls Could Talk, Freeform’s Famous in Love, and Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists. She continues to grow her television credits through her production company Long Lake Media. King is repped by WME and Entertainment 360.