Scott Sigler's thriller novel Infested, to be published by book publisher Random House, Inc.'s imprint Crown Publishers in the U.S. and Canada next spring, has been acquired for development by Random House Films and Rogue Pictures. Andrew Karpen and Andrew Rona, Co-Presidents of Rogue Pictures, part of NBC Universal; and Peter Gethers, President, Random House Films, a division of Random House, Inc., made the announcement today.

The thriller by acclaimed horror and science fiction writer Scott Sigler is the first in a series of at least two books. Crown Publishers recently secured a world rights multi-book deal with Mr. Sigler, while the filmmaking partnership now holds rights to both Infested and the as-yet-untitled second book in the series. Adrienne Biddle and Alex Heineman will oversee Infested for Rogue Pictures. Valerie Cates, Executive Story Editor, will oversee the project for Random House Films.

Infested details a race against escalating terror, as a CIA black-ops specialist and a Center for Disease Control scientist team up in the struggle to contain a parasite that is rapidly spreading across America. This bug's bite turns ordinary people into crazed serial killers. The trail of corpses - of both the killers and their victims - soon leads to an infected man, Perry Dawsey, fighting a bloody battle for control of his own mind and body. Can Dawsey stave off his - and humanity's - nightmare?

Steve Ross, Senior Vice President and Publisher, Crown Publishers, commented, "Infested will be one of our biggest books for next spring, and we are thrilled about our multi-book arrangement with Scott. As both a highly visual storyteller and an innovative online podcaster, he creates pulse-pounding narratives."

Mr. Karpen and Mr. Rona said, "Readers and listeners worldwide hang on Scott's every word. Infested is ideal for the type of smart genre moviemaking that Rogue cultivates."

Mr. Gethers added, "We're delighted to partner with Rogue to turn this truly scary and entertaining novel into what surely will be an equally frightening and enjoyable film."

Mr. Sigler's previous novels, all of which have been either published as a book or podcast online, include EarthCore, Ancestor, and The Rookie. He has readers and listeners in nearly three dozen countries, most notably the U.S., the U.K., Germany, and Australia.

Infested is the latest project to evolve from the filmmaking partnership between Crown sister division Random House Films and Rogue sibling company Focus Features. In the multi-year deal announced in November 2005 between Random House, Inc. and Focus Features, the companies will develop movies together and co-finance and co-produce a substantial slate of feature films for theatrical release, all based on books published by Random House imprints in North America and internationally.

Random House Films and Focus jointly acquire film rights for the books and partner together on script development, director selection, all phases of production, and marketing and publicity. Films co-produced by Focus or its sibling company Rogue Pictures with Random House Films will be jointly owned, with Focus holding worldwide distribution and sales rights.

The inaugural film to be made in the partnership is the drama Reservation Road, which Focus will release this fall, based on the novel of the same name by John Burnham Schwartz and directed by Terry George. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly, and Mira Sorvino, and is in post-production.