File this under amazing and disturbing. Kiernan Shipka, 13, has just signed on to star in Lifetime's adaptation of Flowers in the Attic, a 1979 classic young adult novel by V.C. Andrews that became a worldwide sensation.
According to Deadline.com, the Mad Men actress will be taking on the lead role opposite actor Mason Dye; the two will play teenage siblings forced to live with their creepy grandmother, who locks them up in one room of her mansion, where the brother and sister come of age and end up — spoiler alert! — falling in love. Heather Graham is slated to play their neglectful, troubled mother, while Ellen Burstyn will tackle the role of the evil grandmother.
Despite its risque subject (the novel was banned in some parts of the country), the book spawned three sequels, Petals in the Wind, If There Be Thorns, and Seeds of Yesterday, as well as the prequel Garden of Shadows. In 1987, a movie adaptation, starring Kristy Swanson, of Flowers in the Attic, was released.
