McG and Amanda Seyfried attached to THE GIRL WHO CONNED THE IVY LEAGUE

Amanda Seyfried will play a real life identity thief in The Girl Who Conned The Ivy League, which McG is attached to, but it is unclear whether or not he will be producing or directing... hopefully not the latter.

Based on Sabrina Rubin Erdely's June 2009 Rolling Stone article,The Girl Who Conned The Ivy League tells the story of Esther Reed, an extremely intelligent girl who escapes the paralyzing sense of self-consciousness and paranoia of her sheltered and fragmented family life, by assuming the identities of missing persons. Using the wealth of information and Social Security numbers provided on missing-persons websites, she is able to acquire a driver's license, a birth certificate, and the coveted U.S. passport, legitimately acing the SATs, and gaining admission into Harvard and Columbia. She must juggle her new identity and newfound self-confidence, amidst a tangle of deceit. But when the search for Brooke Henson, the missing girl Esther is posing as, leads South Carolina police detective Jon Campbell breaking down her near perfect guard of identification with DNA tests, she goes on the run. With her motives unclear, an 18-month federal manhunt ensues, fueled by false theories of murder and espionage.

I took me awhile to sum up the article in a non cut-and-dry way, because this really is an amazing and tragic story. If you have the time, I highly suggest you give it a read here. It has elements of Catch Me If You Can, using small scams to keep her afloat financially and socially, with the more tormented tone of The Talented Mr. Ripley, with tinges of The Informant -- once the manhunt begins. But there really is two stories to be touched on, as the still unsolved case of the real Brooke Henson haunts her family, as well as the heavily invested Detective Campbell.

The film will be based off of a pitch by Lorene Scafaria (Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist), who will presumably pen the script.

I can't believe McG has a project that I'm interested in, but the source material is really what has me hooked. This would be the role of a life time for Seyfried, as Reed goes through an array of personalities and circumstance -- the reclusive young teen from a strict Footloose-like hometown, to the charismatic competitive debate team member -- as well as plenty of physical transformations from weight gain and weight loss used as a way to hide her identity, as well as a result of depression.

I'm going to pay close attention to this project, and I hope they don't Hollywoodize the crap out of it, because this has enough twist and turns already.