Sidney Kimmel Entertainment has acquired rights to the non-fiction book “Alice + Freda Forever” from Berlanti Productions, with Jennifer Kent set to direct.

The film is based on Alexis Coe’s debut non-fiction book about a budding romantic relationship between two young girls in 1892 Memphis, Tenn. that incited a sensational murder and electrified the nation.

SKE will fully finance, co-produce and develop with Berlanti Productions. Sidney Kimmel will produce, along with Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter. Hacken will executive produce. Berlanti’s Schechter brought the project to SKE.

“Jennifer Kent was my first choice from the moment I read Coe’s exceptional book,” Schechter said. “Jennifer’s debut film was one of the most accomplished I have ever seen and I’m thrilled she shares the same passion for telling this powerful, intense and unfortunately still timely story. We are thrilled to have Sidney Kimmel Entertainment as our partners.”

Published in October 2014 by Pulp — an imprint of Zest Books — “Alice + Freda Forever” was one of the New Yorker’s “Books to Watch Out For,” an Amazon “Books of the Month” for history, on Paris Review’s “Staff Picks,” and made the fall to-read and year-end lists at Flavorwire, Bustle, School Library Journal and MSN, among others.

Kent broke on to the scene last year with her critically acclaimed horror pic “The Babadook” and quickly became one of the hottest directors in town before settling on “Alice + Freda Forever.”

She is repped by WME.