Mark Wahlberg, Jason Blum Team to Adapt Hot Article 'The Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrenc

Jason Blum and Mark Walhberg are teaming up to adapt "The Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence," a buzzed-about New York magazine cover story by Ezra Marcus and James D. Walsh.


Blum’s Blumhouse Productions has quietly picked up the rights to the piece that appeared on the magazine's The Cut website, and will produce with Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson through the duo's Closest to the Hole Productions. Scoop Wasserstein of New York magazine is also attached to produce.


At this early stage of development, it is unclear whether the piece will be translated into a feature film or a limited series as Blumhouse sees potential for both, say sources. If the feature film route is taken, Wahlberg would star.


Blumhouse had no comment.


Stolen Kids, published April 28, told of a group of young women and men attending the prestigious liberal arts college of Sarah Lawrence who found themselves in the orbit of a charming but manipulative father of one of their classmates.


In the lengthy piece, the man, named Larry Ray, was released from prison and promptly moved into the dorm of his daughter, cooking fancy steak dinners and regaling students with stories of his work being a CIA operative while extolling the virtues of a Marine life. But what was supposed to be a crashing in the common room for a few days led to Ray taking charge of the kids’ lives and then whisking them away to a private apartment in New York for a summer.


The article revealed the dark side of Ray, who saw his various connections to New York’s political scene (Rudy Giuliani is name-checked several times) fizzle in the wake of securities fraud and domestic abuse charges, things he blamed on people out to get him. Only his daughter, a student at Sarah Lawrence, stood by his side.


Ray turned kids against parents, inserted himself physically into their sex lives and abused them. But none turned against him, even praising how he turned their lives around in several court cases.


The article closes with a couple of students escaping the man’s mental shackles even as others’ lives had been turned upside down.


Blum saw BlacKkKlansman turn into a best picture nominee and was a producer on Us, Jordan Peele’s thriller that made over $250 million worldwide. His latest release is Ma, about a woman (Octavia Spencer) who befriends high school kids only to reveal sinister motives. Universal opens the movie May 31.


Wahlberg and Levinson's Closest to the Hole last produced Paramount's family comedy Instant Family as well as action movie Mile 22.