SNEAK PEEK: “I AM NUMBER FOUR”

One, Two and Three are dead. Time is now running out for Number Four.

In DreamWorks Pictures’ new action-packed thriller “I Am Number Four,” British newcomer Alex Pettyfer stars as John Smith, aka, Number Four—a disenfranchised teen on the run from ruthless enemies sent to destroy him.

Of course, John Smith isn’t your typical American teen. Spirited away from his homeland as a child, he’s now one of nine fugitives scattered across the globe, hiding from the ruthless marauders who destroyed their world and are now determined to hunt them down, one by one. Forever changing his identity as he moves from place to place with his guardian, Henri (Timothy Olyphant), things come to a head when he takes up a new life in a small Ohio town. Here, John encounters love (“Glee’s” Dianna Agron), his emerging powers and a connection to the others who share his ultimate destiny.

“When DreamWorks sent it to me,” says director D.J. Caruso (“Eagle Eye”), “I was really attracted to it from the character standpoint—this disenfranchised teenager who keeps moving around, not really putting down roots, and trying to figure out who he is. At the same time, he’s got this hidden destiny. I thought it was a really cool story.”

Penned by Pittacus Lore, “I Am Number Four” is the first of several novels planned for a projected series of books from HarperCollins. Picked up by DreamWorks Studios a year prior to its publication last August, the movie was fast-tracked for production with Michael Bay (“Transformers”) producing and Caruso directing, with a screenplay from “Smallville” writers Alfred Gough & Miles Millar and veteran scribe, Marti Noxon (“Mad Men”).

“It is fast,” says executive producer David Valdes (“The Book of Eli”) of “I Am Number Four’s” gallop to the screen. “But the script came in and it was really good.”

The film also stars Teresa Palmer, Kevin Durand and Callan McAuliffe. 

Opening soon across the Philippines, “I Am Number Four” will be distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International through Columbia Pictures.