Gotham Group gets 'Where Things Come Back'

Gotham Group has acquired feature rights to Cory Whaley's thriller "Where Things Come Back" with Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Lindsay Williams and Eddie Gamarra producing. "Things," Whaley's first novel, is set in a small Arkansas town and told through the eyes of a 17-year-old after a birdwatcher spots a species of woodpecker thought to be extinct since the 1940s, sparking a flurry of woodpecker-mania -- while the teen's younger brother has suddenly and inexplicably disappeared. Story is intertwined with that of a young missionary in Africa, who has lost his faith and searching for meaning. "Where Things Come Back" was published by Simon & Schuster's Atheneum Books for Young Readers in May. Gotham Group's produced "Abduction" and "Spiderwick Chronicles." Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com