EXCLUSIVE: David O. Russell, who brought author Matthew Quick’s Silver Linings Playbook to the big screen back in 2012, is in talks to produce a new feature film based on yet another Quick book. Russell is developing the feature film adapation of author’s 2012 novel Boy21 with screenwriter John Whittington (Lego Batman, Green Eggs and Ham) screenwriting.

Boy21 was published by Little, Brown & Co. the same year that Silver Linings Playbook was released. It’s about a boy named Finley who is in a very roughneck town — Irish mob, violence, drugs — and who has had a hard life. At night he must take care of his disabled grandfather. He finds his only true escape playing on the basketball court.

One day, a new kid comes to his school, a kid who has suffered unspeakable tragedy … a kid who was once a great Bball player but who won’t pick up a basketball anymore and will only answer to the name Boy 21 (the number of his basketball jersey). The high school coach asks Finley (who also wears a No. 21 jersey) to take Boy21 under his wing. It’s a story of friendship, judgment and hope.

Russell is repped by CAA and Gang, Tyre, Ramer & Brown. Whittington (When We First Met) is repped by Verve, MXN Entertainent and McKuin Frankel Whitehead.