Latest Hollywood script deals

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Producers Steven Siebert and Christian Taylor have optioned the best-selling novel "Hick," by first-time author Andrea Portes.

"Hick," published in 2007 by Unbridled Books, was recently named among the best adult books for high school students by the School Library Journal.

The coming-of-age story centers on 13-year-old Luli McMullen, who runs away from her ramshackle Nebraska home after being abandoned by her deadbeat parents and heads to Las Vegas. Along the way, she learns the truth about American rootlessness and discovers both the power and peril of her own sexual curiosity. Portes is in talks to adapt the screenplay.

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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Columbia has preemptively picked up "Battle: Los Angeles," a sci-fi spec from scribe Chris Bertolini.

The story follows one Marine platoon's encounter in the battle against an alien invasion on the streets of Los Angeles. Bertolini wrote "The General's Daughter."

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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - MGM has picked up Ben Wexler's comedy spec "Bobism," in which a shy college kid learns that his blog will be the basis for a utopian society in 1,000 years. He also finds out that aliens from the future want to kill him and prevent that utopia from happening.

"Bobism" is the first feature script for the TV writer, whose credits include CBS' "Still Standing," and a television version of the Will Smith comedy "Hitch."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter