October 20th, 2009 4:07 pm

ABC Family eyes ‘Pretty Little Liars’

Taking a page out of The CW’s book, the US cable channel have green-lit a pilot from Warner Horizon and Alloy, based on the series of novels by Sara Shepard.

Competition between The CW and ABC Family has really heated up over the last two seasons, with both channels targeting the same young female demographic.

Last season, ABC Family’s ‘The Secret Life of an American Teenager’ even topped the reboot of The CW’s ‘90210’.

Now it looks as though ABC Family are taking a page from The CW’s playbook, with the cable channel eyeing a project from Warner Bros. Television and Alloy Entertainment — the duo behind ‘Gossip Girl’, ‘Privileged’, and this season’s breakout hit, ‘The Vampire Diaries’.

The project, entitled ‘Pretty Little Liars’, is based on the series of novels by Sara Shepard.

Adapted for television by Marline King (“Just My Luck”), ‘Liars’ revolves around four 16-year-old friends, Aria, Emily, Spencer and Hanna, who’ve had a falling out following the disappearance of their manipulative and vindictive “Queen Bee”, Alison. Three years after her disappearance, the girls begin to receive mysterious messages suggesting that Alison is watching them and knows all their dirty secrets. The messages continue to arrive, even after Alison’s body is finally discovered.

‘Privileged’ star Lucy Hale is said to be negotiations to top-line ‘Liars’, with Bob Levy, Leslie Morgenstein and King serving as executive producers.

Alloy and Warner had previously attempted to turn ‘Liars’ into a TV series, with a project in development for The WB back in 2005. Mimi Schmir had penned the script, but it wasn’t green-lit for pilot by the network.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter