‘The Walled City’: Elliott San Adapting Ryan Graudin YA Novel For SK Global

EXCLUSIVE: We have learned first that SK Global has set screenwriter Elliott San to adapt Ryan Graudin’s Little, Brown Books YA novel The Walled City for Crazy Rich Asians producer SK Global.

The novel, which is in the spirit of Maze Runner, but based in Chinese Mythology, follows teens Mei Yee and Dai, who live in the Walled City, a lawless labyrinth run by crime lords and overrun by street gangs. Teens there traffic drugs or work in brothels–or, like Jin, hide under the radar. But when Dai offers Jin a chance to find her lost sister, Mei Yee, she begins a breathtaking race against the clock to escape the Walled City itself.

SK Global executives on the feature project are John Penotti and Xian Li. Matt Reeves’ 6th and Idaho will also produce.

Back in October 2019, San sold his untitled spec competitively to New Line with Mary Lee of A-Major Media and John Cho producing, as we first reported. The project was billed as a mind-bending genre tale that centers around an Asian-American protagonist.

San is a native of Libertyville, Illinois. He sold his original feature script, an erotic thriller entitled An Affair to Die For when his trajectory took a sharp turn and he was suddenly diagnosed with leukemia. Faced with getting a bone marrow transplant, San returned to his hometown of Chicago to undergo the procedure. After two years spent regaining his health, he found himself at a bit of a crossroads, but continued to pursue his love of screenwriting and returned to Los Angeles. Affair to Die dropped on Netflix back in 2019.

San is repped by UTA and managed by Pacific View.