Fox 2000 has hired Black List screenwriter Max Botkin to adapt the young-adult fantasy novel "Ferals," Variety reports.

The first in a planned trilogy of novels by Jacob Grey, "Ferals" centers on a boy named Caw, who can communicate with crows. As the once-thriving city of Blackstone buckles under a wave of crime and violence orchestrated by the fearsome Spinning Man, Caw discovers an underground world of "ferals," people just like him.Published in April by HarperCollins, "Ferals" has drawn comparisons to Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book."Botkin wrote the Black List script "What Happened to Monday," which director Tommy Wirkola is turning into a film starring Noomi Rapace and Glenn Close will star in the adaptation.