Although Cecilia Ahern's new novel will not be published until later this year, the film rights to the book have been acquired by the Disney company, which plans to turn it into a screen musical.
If You Could See Me Now deals with a six-year-old boy abandoned by his mother and raised by his aunt. When the boy forms a relationship with an imaginary friend, his aunt finds that she can see the friend and becomes romantically involved with him.
No details were available on the financial aspects of the deal with Ms Ahern.
The first cast member signed for the film is Australian actor Hugh Jackman, who starred in the X-Men films and won a Tony award for his performance in the Broadway musical, The Boy From Oz.
Mr Jackman, who will play the imaginary friend, will be one of the producers on the film of Ms Ahern's book, along with John Palermo.
"We've been combing material for a great idea that's translatable to a movie, and Hugh really responded to this book," Mr Palermo told the show business trade paper Variety yesterday.
"Our goal with these films is to reinvent the movie musical."
The producers are in the process of assigning a screenwriter to adapt the book into a film, after which a songwriter will be commissioned to compose the score for the film.
If You Could See Me Now is the third novel by Ms Ahern, the 23-year-old daughter of the Taoiseach.
The film rights to her first book, PS I Love You, were acquired by another Hollywood studio, Warner Bros, which has hired Richard LaGravenese, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of The Fisher King.
In that story a young widow finds a list of 10 tasks left by her husband to help her cope with her grief after his death.
The film will be produced by Wendy Finerman, who won an Oscar in 1995 for Forrest Gump.