Fox Atomic nabs 'Surrogate' adaptation

Ralph Winter to produce Mackel thriller

By TATIANA SIEGEL

Fox Atomic has snapped up Kathryn Mackel's novel "The Surrogate" for Ralph Winter to produce through his Fox-based Winter Road banner.

Thriller revolves around a couple who hire a surrogate to carry their child and find out mid-term that the surrogate is insane. Rod and Bruce Taylor ("The Brave One") are penning the screenplay.

Winter Road's Susana Zepeda is also producing alongside Robin Guthrie and Deborah Giarratana.

Twentieth Century Fox recently acquired Alan McElroy's spec "Man and Wife" for Winter Road to produce.

Mackel, whose novels also include "Vanished" and "The Hidden," has pioneered the supernatural subgenre known as "Christian chillers."