Photo: Kevin Winter/2011 Getty Images
Brian Percival, the director behind a slew of Downton Abbey episodes (including the very first, which he won an Emmy for), has been tapped to helm The Book Thief, an adaptation of Marcus Zusak’s young adult novel that’s been tearing up the New York Times best-seller lists since its 2006 publication. Set in World War II, “the story involves Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich who survives by stealing books. Aided by her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids,†Deadline writes. Sounds like material Percival can slay handily.