Pacific Standard, the new banner formed by Reese Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea, has picked up the rights to a children’s book series titled Pennyroyal’s Princess Boot Camp.

The books hail from M.A. Larson, who once was an assistant to Mike Nichols and now works in animation.

Witherspoon will produce the adaptation with Papandrea and is attached to play a supporting role.

Princess Boot Camp is described as is a modern fairy tale about a school that shapes girls into warrior princesses to battle against an ever-growing terror of wicked witches.

The first book in the series is the debut novel by Larson, a Minnesota native who studied filmmaking at the University of Miami and became Nichols’ assistant when the legendary producer-director-writer was working on Angels in America, Closer and the Broadway musical Spamalot. Larson later moved to Los Angeles, where he was a staff writer on Cartoon Network shows and has been writing for such kid-oriented channels as Disney XD, Nickelodeon and Discovery Kids.

Princess Boot Camp recently was picked up by Putnam Children’s as a two-book series.

Pacific Standard is developing the books as a potential franchise. It’s the first official project from the fledgling company.

“Finally, there is a princess story that reflects the values young women truly want to embody,” Witherspoon said. “These princesses are strong, independent and fierce, and the knights are their match. In telling their story, Larson has created a magical universe that everyone will love to get lost in.”

Alexandra Machinist at Janklow & Nesbit Associates brokered the book deal and worked with CAA on the film deal. Larson is repped on the film side by the Brant Rose Agency and Jackoway Tyerman.

- HollywoodReporter.com