Posted on August 13, 2014 at 1:27 pm

CBS Films is making a big-screen version of the stage musical 13.

Laurence Mark is producing the adaptation, which is being written by Bert V. Royal, the scribe best known for the well-regarded Emma Stone high school movie Easy A. Bob Boyett, who produced 13 onstage, also is producing, while David Blackman will executive produce.

Jason Robert Brown, who won a Tony for his score for The Bridges of Madison County, wrote the music and lyrics for 13 and will tackle the same duties on the film.

The play — which made its debut in 2007 at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles before hitting Broadway — centers on a 13-year-old boy who moves from New York City, where he is on top of the social pyramid, to small-town Indiana, where he finds himself in the gutter. While he deals with his parents’ divorce and his upcoming bar mitzvah, he concocts a plan to become popular, which promptly backfires and he’s forced to do some growing up.

Dan Elish and Robert Horn wrote the stage musical’s book. (The musical proved to be a launchpad for actors; Ariana Grande made her acting debut in 2008 as Charlotte in the Broadway version.)

Mark produced Last Vegas, the comedy that proved to be a hit for CBS Films.

Overseeing for CBS Films are vp production Mark Ross and creative executive Winnie Kemp.

Borys Kit’s article in The Hollywood Reporter can be viewed here.