EXCLUSIVE: MGM Television has optioned Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff’s bestselling YA sci-fi thriller Aurora Rising, to develop as a TV series. MGM Television will produce and MGM will internationally distribute the series. They are currently out to showrunners and writers.

The novel, which was published on May 7, is from Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books.

Set in the year 2380, Aurora Rising follows Ty Jones, the top cadet of the Aurora Academy, and his unwanted squad of misfits and losers as they slowly realize that the girl they rescued from hundreds of years of cryo-sleep may be the catalyst for a war millions of years in the making. The book, the first in the Aurora Cycle, is slated for publication in ten foreign territories, with more in the works.

Bill Todman Jr. and Edward Millstein (Married to the Mob, Grandma’s Boy, Wild Wild West) will executive produce with Limor Hakim co-producing for Level 1 Entertainment. Kaufman and Kristoff will serve as consulting producers. Max Kisbye, MGM’s Executive Vice President, Television Development and Production and Rob Hochberg, Director, Television Development and Production, will oversee the series for MGM Television.

“Amie and Jay have created something really special with Aurora Rising. Their novel blends comedy, action and heart seamlessly in such a wonderful way. We are all looking forward to working with them, Bill and the whole creative team at Level 1 to bring this impressive story to television,” said Steve Stark, MGM President, Television Production and Development.

“We are beyond excited to be working with MGM Television, Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff to make this epic space opera into a fantastic television series,” said Todman and Milstein.

MGM Television is also developing Kaufman’s bestselling Starbound Trilogy, co-written by Meagan Spooner. Eric Balfour, Stephanie Varella, Martin Berneman and Warren Littlefield are executive producing.

Kaufman and Kristoff are represented by Stephen Moore at The Kohner Agency.