EXCLUSIVE: Dan Mazer has been set to direct Anya’s Ghost, a supernatural comedy based on the graphic novel by Vera Brosgol. Entertainment One is financing; Bolt Pictures’ Jeremy Bolt is producing with Bullitt Entertainment’s Benedict Carver and eOne. Script was written by Patrick Ness, the author and screenwriter behind A Monster Calls and Chaos Walking. Production will begin before year’s end. Mazer directed Dirty Grandpa and I Give It A Year.

The film is a coming-of-age story with a supernatural twist and dark comic overtones. Anya is a less than popular 16-year-old who gets stranded in an underground cave. There, she meets and rescues Emily, the apparent ghost of a teen who died a century earlier. While Anya thinks her new “friend” is the best thing to ever happen to her, the alliance has unforeseen consequences for Anya, her friends and her family.

Said Bolt: “Patrick is so passionate about the source material, and his screenplay is fresh and distinctive. We love Dan’s vision to make a classic high school comedy with a supernatural twist.”

Lara Thompson and Ilda Diffley will oversee for eOne. The graphic novel was published by Macmillan imprint Square Fish in 2011 and won the Eisner Award among other accolades. Mazer is repped by CAA, 3 Arts and attorney George Davis, while Ness is with CAA, Michelle Kass Associates and attorney Howard Abramson. Brosgol is with ROAR and Hansen Literary Management.