Hoping to bring in the fans that no longer have ‘Harry Potter’ movies to go to, Warner Bros. picked up the rights to the Deborah Harkness’ novel ‘A Discovery of Witches’ last summer and have now hired David Auburn to scribe the screenplay.
Auburn gained critical acclaim for his work on the play ‘Proof.’ Not only did he win a Tony Award for best play but he also earned the Joseph Kesselring Prize, the Drama Desk Award and the Pulitzer Prize for drama! With a list that impressive, he’s sure to do a good job with adapting Harkeness’ book. Other screenplays he’s written include ‘The Lake House’ and ‘The Girl in the Park.’ According to Harkness’ blog, she has no say to the casting or the script but trusts that Warner Bros. and the producers, Denise Di Novi (‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’, ‘Message in a Bottle’ ‘Crazy, Stupid, Love’) and Allison Greenspan (‘Catwoman’, ‘Monte Carlo’) will do a good job with her first fictional book.
The book, which was published last February, is the first in the ‘All Souls’ trilogy which may be one of the reasons Warner Bros. optioned the work. The second book, ‘Shadow of Night’ is set to be published sometime this summer.
‘A Discovery of Witches’ has been described by People Magazine as “a wonderfully imaginative grown-up fantasy with all the magic of Harry Potter and Twilight.” It tells the story of an unwilling modern day witch who accidently magically unlocks an enchanted manuscript which begins to attract unwelcomed magical creatures to come after her and the manuscript. She partners with a 1,500 year old French vampire to help her prevent an imminent war between humans and creatures that live among them.
With Auburn now on board to write the screenplay, the next step for the producers is to find a director. Once they do, we’ll let you know! This project sounds very promising, don’t you think?
Source: Variety
