Warner Bros. buys film rights to Indiana mother's memoir about her autistic son's journey to become math genius, 12-year-old university student

From Variety. (Here's a story about Jacob Barnett from March 2011).

Warner Bros. has acquired feature film rights to Kristine Barnett's upcoming memoir, tentatively titled "Scattered Skills," in a pre-emptive deal.

Book will tell the story of a mother and her 12-year-old son, Jacob, (pictured) and his journey from autism to genius.

The son's first few years were spent in silence but then he took a liking to math and was able to recite the mathematical constant pi out to 70 digits at age 3. He began attending university classes in Indiana at age 8 and has a math IQ that has been measured at 170.

Deals for the book and film were based on a 74-page proposal.

Courtenay Valenti will oversee the project for the studio.

The book deal was negotiated by Susan Kamil, senior VP, publisher and editor in chief of Random House. The memoir is set to be one of the publishing house's major titles for 2013 and foreign rights have already been sold in 18 territories.

UTA negotiated on behalf of Barnett and her publishing agent Laurie Bernstein of Side by Side Literary Prods.