Felicity Jones has signed on to star in A Monster Calls for director Juan Antonio Bayona, with Liam Neeson being courted to play the Monster.

We first reported on this adaptation of Patrick Ness' novel back in March, when River Road Entertainment, Participant Media, Lionsgate International, and Focus Features teamed up to produce and finance the project. Felicity Jones is playing "Mum" in this story, which centers on a young boy who escapes into his own fantasy world, to get away from his dying mother and the classmates who bully him daily. This new world is filled with monsters and fairy tales that deal with loss, courage and faith. Patrick Ness wrote the book based on an original idea by the late Siobhan Dowd. Ness and his illustrator Jim Kay won the Carnegie Medal and Greenaway Medal in 2012, which are presented to the U.K.'s best children's books each year.

Patrick Ness wrote the screenplay adaptation himself, with Belén Atienza producing. River Road's Bill Pohlad and Mitch Horwits, Participant's Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King, and Lionsgate's Patrick Wachsberger are executive producing. No production schedule was given for the 2016 release.

Felicity Jones will next be seen in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and the upcoming True Story, which stars Jonah Hill and James Franco.