Once again young adult literature finds its way to the big screen with the film Beautiful Creatures. Based on the novels by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl this movie is the adaptation of the first of four books in the Caster Chronicle Series.

This supernatural love story follows the relationship between teenagers, Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich) and Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert). Ethan is a free thinker, in an extremely conservative town and Lena is the mysterious new girl with a secret. They are instantly attracted to each other. As their relationship progresses it is revealed that Lena is a Caster with supernatural powers who upon her 16^th birthday will be “claimed” either by the Light or the Dark. Casters from both sides (light and dark) wait for the outcome of this rite of passage. Lena’s uncle, Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons), fiercely protects her to avoid that the dark claims, forbidding her to see Ethan again. This Romeo and Juliet-esque magical adventure explores the great conflict between free will and destiny. It also addresses the teenagers struggle to be themselves and figuring out who they are.

Oscar nominee, Richard LaGravenese embarks in the journey of adapting and directing the film version of the first book of the series. About the adaptation he explains that in order to translate the story to the cinematic media, he had to do various changes. “Margi and Kami were just fantastic. So supportive about the changes I wanted to make.” The writer/director explains that as a part of his creative process he did not read the following books in the series, “If I had that in my head I would have been handcuffed. I wouldn’t have allowed myself to create and reinvent stuff.” In this way and with the authors blessing, he had the freedom to recreate this story as a film.

In his creative vision he wanted to make it more about the humanity of the characters by avoiding excessive special effects and reducing the CGI use to a minimum.

After the huge success of other young adult novels made into film (Harry Potter, Twilight) a common reaction among the audience and media is to include Beautiful Creatures as part of that phenomenon. “It was my one hesitation in doing it because no matter how original is your work in this town perception is more real than fact. People don’t want to know what it is they want to know what is like,” the director explains. “That was my fear all the way through and until we get people to see it they’ll understand there is more to it”. “We share a genre as many films share a genre.  It was my intention to make this movie about ideas and to try elevate things with great actors, cinematography and humor and try very hard to stay away from earnestness,” he added.

A carefully put together cast embodies The Casters and Mortals that inhabit the conservative small town of Gatlin South Carolina. Among them are top tier actors such as Emma Thompson, Jeremy Irons and Viola Davis.

The never ending battle between good and evil continues. This time in a small southern- gothic town, where the magical and the mundane meet and fall in love. Beautiful Creatures invites their audience (young or otherwise) to a new universe of magic, curses, poetry and teenage love.

Be Claimed by Beautiful Creatures, now playing in theaters!