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Constantin ready to ‘Unwind’

Company scores feature film rights to sci-fi novel

Constantin Film has acquired feature film rights to Neal Shusterman’s bestselling sci-fi novel “Unwind.”

Published in 2007 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, “Unwind” is described as a thought-provoking tale that blurs the line between life and death while challenging ideas about what it means to be alive.

Story is set in a dystopian future in which parents of teens can choose to have their child “unwound” — a process in which the teen’s organs are transplanted into different donors.

Book, which has been translated into 11 different languages, has a large Internet following of young adult readers.

Robert Kulzer, co-prexy of Constantin Film in Los Angeles, brought the project to the company and will serve as producer on “Unwind” alongside Marc Benardout, Catherine Kimmel, Julian Stone and Charlotte Stoudt, who will produce for Stay Whole Prods. Constantin board member Martin Moszkowicz, who is responsible for film and TV, will exec produce.

Kulzer and Moszkowicz are also producing and exec producing, respectively, Constantin’s adaptation of “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones,” which Screen Gems will release next summer.

Shusterman is the author of many young adult novels, including the recently published sequel to “Unwind,” entitled “Unwholly,” as well as “The Skinjacker Trilogy” and “Downsiders.” Shusterman also writes scripts for film and television, including shows such as “Animorphs” and “Goosebumps.” He’s currently working on the third book in the “Unwind” trilogy. Shusterman is repped by APA and Underground.