Hot off his starring turn in Warner Bros.’ hit comedy Project X, Thomas Mann (pictured, center) – who will also be seen in Fun Size and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters – is in negotiations to join the studio’s adaptation of Beautiful Creatures, the first novel in Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s popular series that is being produced by Alcon Entertainment, reports Variety.

Richard LaGravenese is writing and directing the supernatural love story, which stars Jack O’Connell (Eden Lake) and Alice Englert as two star-crossed teens who uncover dark secrets about their families, their history and their town.

Viola Davis, Emma Thompson and Emmy Rossum co-star, with the latter thesp playing a witch who is Englert’s cousin and enemy.

Mann is in talks to play Link, O’Connell’s best friend who’s fond of both music and magic, which Rossum’s character uses to get Link to obey her commands.

“In the first book, high-school student Ethan Wate meets and becomes bewitched by Lena Duchannes, a 16-year-old whose family has moved to the small South Carolina town where he lives. The two must confront a curse that has haunted her family for generations as she comes to grips with her powers.”

Production on the Southern pic starts next month in New Orleans.