Billie Livingston YA Novel Will Be Feature Film

Foundation Features and Rodeo Queen Pictures will produce a feature film based on Billie Livingston’s 2010 YA work, The Trouble With Marlene (Annick).

Up-and-comer Paloma Kwiatkowski has been tapped to star as young Sammie in Livingston’s work, to be released as Sitting on the Edge of Marlene. Kwiatkowski’s complicated moniker is not yet a household name, but wait. The 18-year-old Vancouver actor is represented in Canada by Vancouver’s Carrie Wheeler and has a key role in the 2013 summer release of Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters based on the novel by Rick Riordan. From Variety:

Pic concerns Sammie (Kwiatkowski), a teen who is drawn into the family con business to help her addict mom (Suzanne Clement). Callum Keith Rennie (“The Killing”) plays her mom’s con partner and wannabe boyfriend. 

“We knew we would be casting an unknown up-and-comer for the character of Sammie,” Ripley told Variety. “We were aware of Paloma’s amazing talent and lucky to have her in one of our first casting sessions.”

Livingston’s own star has been rising since her debut in 2000 with Going Down Swinging. Her most recent release, 2012’s One Good Hustle, was longlisted for the Giller Prize and was one of January Magazine’s top books of the year.

You can read January Magazine’s 2000 interview with Livingston here.