Darko Entertainment has acquired the invisible-boy novel Fade, by the late young-adult fiction writer Robert Cormier, Variety reported.

The indie company, which will finance and produce the project, has tapped writer Adam Prince to adapt.

Set in the summer of 1938, the story centers on a 13-year-old who discovers he has a secret gift: He can "fade." When he learns that each generation of his family has one "fader," he realizes the dangers of his gift and how easy it is to abuse his power of invisibility.

Darko's Richard Kelly (director of Southland Tales and Donnie Darko), Sean McKittrick and Ted Hamm will produce.

First published in 1988, the book has been bouncing around Hollywood for two decades. At one point, Steven Spielberg was developing it.