EXCLUSIVE: Ansel Elgort (Tokyo Vice) has signed on to star in If You Could See Me Now, an adaptation of the 2005 novel from Cecelia Ahern, to be directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Prisoner’s Daughter).

Hailing from Constantine Film and Canyon Creek, the film follows Elizabeth, whose mother disappeared when she was a little girl. On the same night, Ivan arrived — her invisible friend, a boy her age that only she can see, sent to support her during a difficult time. Years later, Ivan and Elizabeth are miraculously reunited, though neither remember the bond they once had. Ivan quickly begins to fall for Elizabeth, unsure why she is able to see him — but something tells Ivan that he must help her once more…

The book is just the latest to make it to screen for Ahern, the Irish novelist behind titles like PS, I Love You and Where Rainbows End, which were respectively adapted as the films P.S. I Love You and Love, Rosie. Ahern also penned the short story collection Roar, which was turned into a starry series for Apple TV+.

Catherine Cort penned the adaptation of If You Could See Me Now. Robert Kulzer and Simon Brooks will produce.

Best known for starring in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story and Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, as well as The Fault in Our Stars and the Divergent films, Elgort is coming off of two seasons on Max’s crime drama Tokyo Vice, based on the memoir by reporter Jake Adelstein, which he also exec produced. Upcoming, he’ll also be seen in the survival thriller Faster Than Horses, produced by British adventurer Bear Grylls.

Known for work on films like Twilight, Thirteen, and Lords of Dogtown, Hardwicke’s recent work includes Bleecker Street’s action comedy Mafia Mamma, starring Toni Collette; the drama Prisoner’s Daughter, starring Brian Cox and Kate Beckinsale; and FX’s Under the Bridge.

Elgort and Hardwicke are with CAA. Elgort is also repped by Brookside Artist Management and Yorn, Levine, Barnes; Hardwicke by Manage-ment and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.