Our friends at EW are reporting that David Heyman, the man who had the foresight to buy the rights to the Harry Potter films back in the late 90s, has acquired the movies rights to a new fantasy series for Dreamworks, Leigh Bardugo’s “Grisha Trilogy.”
The first book of the trilogy, Shadow and Bone, was released in June and quickly became a New York Times Bestseller for Young Adult Fiction. The book is about a little girl gifted with magical abilities that cause her government to recruit her for research and to serve her country. She lives in a fantasy version of Russia, with an evil force called the Shadow Fold splitting the country in half.
It sounds like it has all the makings of successful young adult fiction to me.
Every movie studio would love to pick up a young adult series, hoping to imitate the success of Harry Potter, or even Twilight and The Hunger Games. The Mortal Instruments is another up-and-comer. Most young adult fiction movie attempts don’t get nearly that far, even with highly successful books. Remember The Golden Compass? How about Eragon?
Those films didn’t have the original mind behind the Harry Potter films behind them though. Shadow and Bone does.
Do you guys think this will be a new hit? Have any of you read Shadow and Bone?
Sound off in the comments!
