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DreamWorks is working on a deal to acquire the screen rights to I Am Number Four, the first in a six-book science-fiction series that Transformers director Michael Bay will produce and possibly direct.

Variety has the report, adding that though the book has been shopped around town under a pseudonym, one of the two authors on the project is in fact James Frey -- best known for writing the memoir A Million Little Pieces.

Well, best known to viewers of Oprah's show. It was the big O who tore Frey a new one in front of millions when it was revealed that the author had fabricated parts of the story of A Million Little Pieces.

This deal would continue Bay's alliance with DreamWorks and Steven Spielberg. The trade paper says that it's "expected that Spielberg will be active in a behind-the-scenes capacity, similar to the godfather role he has played in the Transformers franchise."

The story involves a group of alien teenagers who escaped their planet and wound up on Earth. They assimilate into our planet's culture, even as the title character learns that he's being hunted by the baddie that blew up their home planet.