GK Films rides '5th Wave' with Tobey Maguire

MaguireGK Films has acquired "The 5th Wave," a proposal for a young adult sci-fi trilogy from author Rick Yancey that will also be produced by Tobey Maguire's Material Pictures, with Sony Pictures the most likely to co-finance and distribute.Series follows a teenage girl who survives an alien invasion only to then search for her brother, who may or may not have been abducted by human-looking extra-terrestrials. There's also a romantic angle, as the heroine is helped by a boy who might also be an alien in disguise.GK Films principals Graham King and Tim Headington will produce with Maguire and Matthew Plouffe.Jennifer Besser at Putnam Books for Young Readers pre-emptively purchased the book in a major deal for world English rights that was negotiated by Brian DeFiore of DeFiore and Company.Yancey's 2010 young adult novel The Monstrumologist was published by Simon & Schuster and the manuscript is currently making the Hollywood rounds, with CAA handling film rights.GK recently teamed with Maguire on Gary Ross' sci-fi action film "Outback," which has Carey Mulligan attached to star.CAA negotiated the deal. Contact Rachel Abrams at Rachel.Abrams@variety.com