With Harry Potter at an end and young adult franchises such as Twilight very popular (and there’s loads of buzz already about Lionsgate’s upcoming Hunger Games), there’s a feeling in Hollywood that the time is right to launch yet more family and teen fantasy franchises. Dreamworks is getting in on that with Darkfever, with Variety reporting they’ve snapped up the rights to Karen Marie Moning’s best-selling Young Adult novel series.
There are five books, which sound a little Pans Labyrinth, a tad Lord of the Rings and a bit Twilight. The story follows MacKayla Lane, an ordinary woman who travels from Georgia to Ireland in hopes of finding her sister’s killer. There, she falls into a fantastical world filled with ancient magic and mythical creatures. In this newly discovered realm, MacKalya is tasked with finding a book that could save both the real world and this new land she has come to inhabit.
Darkfever is the first of the book, and is followed by Bloodfever, Faefever, Dreamfever and Shadowfever, so Dreamworks already has built-in franchise potential if the first movie proves a success. It’s all very early yet though, with no director or writer yet attached.