Agent Joshua Bilmes reports the sale of motion picture rights to Peter V. Brett‘s The Warded Man to Paul W.S. Anderson and Jeremy Bolt (via their personal production companies Tannhauser Gate and Bolt Pictures). Director/screenwriter Anderson and his producing partner Bolt are best known for their Resident Evil film franchise.
Stephanie Johnson at Clover Entertainment submitted the project to Bolt, whom she knew was looking for something franchise-worthy on par not only with Resident Evil, but with the Mortal Kombat and AVP: Aliens vs. Predator projects directed by Anderson. He and Anderson knew almost instantly that The Warded Man was a must-buy for them. Said Anderson and Bolt, “For us, this is a stunningly fresh novel which will make an epic movie. The genius of the novel is in having the epic scope and the pleasures of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings while being entirely fresh in every facet of the writing itself. You are always looking for something new, this has it, and like Lord of the Rings, it’s a perfect four quadrant movie.”
Anderson tells The Hollywood Reporter: “It was an occasion where it paid to be British. [The book] launched in the UK six months earlier than in the US, and we got wind of it when it was in galley form before the UK release.”
Bolt added: “We put our own money to buy it. We were reading all these great reviews, and we thought someone was going to buy it pretty fast.”
Anderson wanted to take no chances and took it upon himself to court the author at a meeting last November. It was easier than he might have expected. Brett said, “I’d long been a fan of Paul’s movies and it was instantly clear why. Paul W.S. Anderson not only loved the book, but loved it for all the right reasons, and he wanted to make the movie not only in a big way but in the right way. I’m with kindred spirits in Paul and Jeremy.”
THR says “the book is set in an undetermined future where mankind is beset by nightly attacks from demonkind and has been thrown back into a feudal state. Three young people emerge with the potential power to turn the tide, including the title character, a man who has wards (spells) tattooed on his body.” The Warded Man is the first novel in Brett’s Demon Cycle. According to Bilmes, it is the biggest fantasy debut internationally of 2008. It was an instant top 50 bestseller in the UK (under the title The Painted Man) upon its release in August by Harper Voyager. It was an immediate genre bestseller in the US where it was released in March 2009 by Random House/Del Rey. It is already available in translation in Germany, Japan, and Poland, and editions are forthcoming in France, Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands, The Czech Republic, Greece, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Russia.
Anderson and Bolt are now in post-production on Pandorum, which is due to be released in September. Some of their previous productions include Death Race (2008) and Event Horizon (1997).
Brett is currently revising the second novel in the Demon Cycle, entitled The Desert Spear, which is scheduled for a simultaneous global release in April 2010.