Things are looking pretty darn good for first time novelist, Leigh Bardugo. According to Deadline, DreamWorks Studios has just acquired the feature film rights to her young adult fantasy novel, Shadow and Bone. The studio has brought in David Heyman (Harry Potter) to produce the project, alongside Jeffrey Clifford.
This news comes just a few months after the novel’s release back in June, which debuted on The New York Times Best Seller List, and will be the first in a three-book series called the Grisha Trilogy. I smell a new franchise coming, guys. The novel focuses around a young woman who must “learn to control her newly discovered power in order to save her country from the Shadown Fold, a creature-filled darkness that threatens to overrun the land.”
DreamWorks production president, Holly Bario, stated the following about the novel, “We found not just a fantastic story, but one set in a mystical and fascinating world that will translate well to the big screen. We are excited to begin adapting this book and look forward to working with David Heyman who has unparalleled proven success in this genre.”
Although this proposed franchise doesn’t quite hold the same heft as the Harry Potter franchise, Heyman does have the noted experience necessary to certainty help the project on the box office front. The famed producer called Shadow and Bone, “a riveting and wholly original adventure set in a breathtakingly imaginative world.”
To get a better sense of the scope of the novel, check out the synopsis via Amazon:
Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.
Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.
Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha…and the secrets of her heart.
The next novel in the series, Siege and Storm, is set for a June 2013 release, with a third installment planned for summer 2014.
What do you think about this budding franchise? Will it make for a good feature film?