Two Australian writers have signed a deal with Brad Pitt's movie production company to turn their best-selling young adult science fiction thriller into a major Hollywood film.

Pitt's Plan B Entertainment, makers of World War Z and Twelve Years a Slave, has teamed up with Warner Bros to bring Illuminae, by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, to the big screen.

Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman, who co-wrote Illuminae after a dream by Kaufman. Credit:Christopher Tovo

​The deal caps off an incredible four weeks for the Melbourne authors in which their novel debuted on The New York Times' Young Adult Hardcover Bestseller list and raced to number three soon after its international release on October 20.

"It's been a very strange experience, especially as writers we spend all of our time just writing and every now and then you open the door and emerge blinking into the sun," Kaufman told Fairfax Media. The pair has just returned to Australia from an eight-city US promotional tour.