Lionsgate has acquired the film rights to "The Last Equation," the debut novel by screenwriter Stuart Gibbs reports the trades.

The story follows the mystery surrounding Pandora, Albert Einstein's last equation. It had the potential to solve the world's energy problems, but it so drastically simplified the process of harnessing atomic energy that it essentially made it possible for anyone to create atomic weaponry.

Because of the risks, Einstein either hid or destroyed the equation before his death. "Equation" takes place in the present day as the government is forced to enlist the help of a fugitive criminal and mathematical genius to find the equation before it falls into the wrong hands.