This morning, it was announced that Cross Creek Pictures and Smuggler Films will be teaming up to produce the adaptation of Jess Walter’s New York Times Best Seller Beautiful RuinsTodd Field (Little Children) – who co-founded Cross Creek Pictures along with Brian Oliver and Tyler Thompson – will not only be producing the film but is also taking the reigns as director.  The author of the book, Jess Walter, is co-writing the screenplay with Field, which will be produced through Standard Film Company.

Beautiful Ruins centers around three characters, one being an Italian innkeeper in search of a mysterious woman who years before showed up in the coastline of his hotel.  The story happens over a span of five decades and “is set in motion by an incident involving the international jet-set center, Rome, in the throws of La Dolce Vita madness during the shooting of Cleopatra.”  This book has been sitting on my Nook shelf for a little while now, but news of the project make me want to pick it up ASAP.  I’m happy to hear the author will be co-writing the script, it almost guarantees the adaptation will stay true to the book and I’m curious to see how it all unravels on screen. Hit the jump to read the synopsis and full press release for Beautiful Ruins.

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Here’s the press release and synopsis for Beautiful Ruins:

Todd Field to Write and Direct Adaptation of BEAUTIFUL RUINS

Los Angeles, CA (April 8, 2013) – Filmmaker Todd Field, Brian Oliver and Tyler Thompson, co-founders of Cross Creek Pictures, and Patrick Milling Smith and Brian Carmody, co-founders of Smuggler Films, announced today that their companies will team up to produce the film adaptation of Jess Walter’s New York Times Best Seller, “Beautiful Ruins.” Todd Field and Jess Walter are confirmed to write the screenplay, with Field set to direct. Field will produce the film through Standard Film Company with Cross Creek’s Oliver, Thompson, Smuggler Films’ Milling Smith and Carmody, Adam Kassan will oversee production for Cross Creek.

The epic story begins in the spring of 1962 off the Ligurian Sea and centers on three young characters whose orbit around one another is set in motion by an incident involving the international jet-set center, Rome, in the throws of “La Dolce Vita” madness during the shooting of Cleopatra, and continues for decades.

In addition to appearing on the New York Times Best Sellers list, “Beautiful Ruins” was named one of the best books of 2012 by Entertainment Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, the New York Times, Amazon, Esquire and National Public Radio.