Diablo Cody is setting up a new original screenplay, titled “Young Adult,” with Mandate Pictures.

Mason Novick is producing along with Cody and Lianne Halfon and Russell Smith of Mr. Mudd. Mandate president Nathan Kahane and Mr. Mudd’s John Malkovich will serve as executive producers. Mary Lee will oversee the project for Mandate.

All the major players last collaborated on Cody’s Oscar-winning “Juno,” which turned into a $227 million-grossing phenomenon when Fox Searchlight released it in late 2007. Mandate, which optioned the “Young Adult” script, has the project on the fast track while it looks for a director.

The “Young Adult” storyline involves a thirtysomething, divorced, young-adult fiction writer in Minneapolis who returns to her hometown to chase the ex-boyfriend, who’s now married with a kid, that got away.

The Gersh-repped Cody has a “Taming of the Shrew” revamp set up at Paramount and an adaptation of the “Sweet Valley High” books in development at Universal. She last penned “Jennifer’s Body,” which Fox Atomic released last year, and she continues to write and executive produce the Showtime series “The United States of Tara,” which kicked off its second season Monday.

Mandate most recently produced “Whip It” and “Drag Me to Hell,” and the company has “The Switch” coming out in August. The WME-repped Mr. Mudd is developing Brian Tucker’s noir, “Broken City,” and Brent Forrester and Mindy Kaling’s romantic comedy “The Low Self Esteem of Lizzie Gillespie” with Mandate, with which it has a first-look deal.

via riskybusiness.hollywoodreporter.com