Since its introduction in 2002, DC/Vertigo’s series Fables has garnered a legion of fans and scored numerous accolades including 14 Eisner Awards. The ingenious series tells the story of what happened after the famous stars of your favorite childhood fairy tales and nursery rhymes, Snow White, the Big Bad Wolf, Old King Cole, Little Boy Blue and many others, were forced to flee their magical kingdoms to escape the powerful Adversary– who was conquering all lands of fables– and seek refuge in New York City. The book deftly weaves together fairy tale magic with political intrigue, murder, mystery, romance and other adult themes and as such has drawn a mature fan base.
The series has been targeted a few times in the past for adaptation, but has stalled each time. Now, another set of filmmakers are seeking to bring the cast of Fabletown to the big screen. The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Nikolaj Arcel, the director of the Academy Award nominated Danish film A Royal Affair (Best Foreign Language Film nominee) is attached to helm the film based on a script by Jeremy Slater (who is also working on the Fantastic Four reboot) and produced by David Heyman and Jeremy Clifford (the Harry Potter franchise). Arcel also co-wrote the screenplay to the original, Swedish adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
Previously, DC attempted to bring Fables to the big screen in association with The Jim Henson Company, but the project fell through and they never received a script. In 2008, ABC planned to adapt the series to television, but once more, the project never came to pass, but as stated, they did go on to air the popular Once Upon A Time, which also focuses on fairy tale characters in the real world. Since ABC is owned by Disney, that series employs a more Disney-esque take on the classic characters.
The film is obviously in its earliest stages, so there is no indication of what story lines may be adapted or which characters will be included, but I assume Snow White, Bigby Wolf, Rose Red, King Cole and probably Prince Charming and Jack are a shoo-in for the first film with others like Beauty and the Beast a strong possibility. The drawbacks are the failure of Jack the Giant Slayer (and to a certain degree Oz the Great and Powerful) earlier this year and the existence of Once Upon A Time, which may lead the uninitiated to consider Fables a knockoff.
But we’ll see. At this point, a completed film is years away from completion. Are you excited? Do you think Fables will make a good feature film? What would you like to see out of it? Any casting suggestions? Leave a comment below!
