Warp Films optioned film and television rights to Ian McDonald‘s novel The Dervish House, in a deal negotiated by the Zeno Literary Agency‘s John Richard Parker.
Published last year, The Dervish House was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and recently won this year’s BSFA Award.
Parker said “As with all Ian’s books The Dervish House is very much cinematic as well being an imaginative tour de force. I have always believed it has the qualities that make it eminently suitable for film and I am sure that with Warp’s enthusiasm for the project and their fantastic track record, all the ingredients are in place to put together something very special indeed.”
Warp Films has had notable successes recently with Submarine and Four Lions. Executive Producer Peter Carlton said “We’re delighted to have the chance to adapt The Dervish House for the screen, set in that most iconic of cities, crossroads of east and west, past and future, Istanbul. It starts with an explosion on a tram and ends in a race to stop a terrorist plot, but in the meantime Ian somehow weaves together speculative share trading, nanotechnology and Islamic microcalligraphy, to name but a few strands in this visual feast that has a narrative sweep and ambition all too rare in contemporary fiction.”