Excellent fantasy novel The Warded Man being developed for TV

Hollywood has long been adapting books into TV shows, but it’s gone into overdrive lately. Over the past few years we’ve seen a boom of great book series heading to the small screen, including The Wheel of Time, Shadow and Bone, His Dark Materials, Foundation, The Witcher, and of course, Game of Thrones.

But Hollywood’s hunger for more stories is insatiable, and there will always be the next to look forward to. Perhaps the next big thing will be The Demon Cycle. Deadline reports that The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett is being developed for television by Rush Hour and The Hustle producer Roger Birnbaum and Mark Kimsey with their company Electromagnetic Productions. No studio is yet attached, but given the interest in these kinds of shows right now, I’m optimistic.

The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett is heading to television

The Warded Man (published as The Painted Man in Europe) is the first novel in Brett’s five-book fantasy horror series The Demon Cycle. It’s set in a world where demons called corelings come out of the ground at night, eviscerating any humans caught without protection. The only way humanity has managed to stay alive is by painting magical wards; around homes, cities, campsites, wherever they can manage. Once, humans had ways to fight back against the corelings, but they were lost centuries ago and now civilization teeters on the brink.

One man is driven by his tragic past to uncover the forgotten battle wards, which he tattoos onto his body in order to become a living weapon in the fight against the demons. The Demon Cycle features an ensemble cast, meaning that despite the press release’s focus on the titular Warded Man, this would be a show with plenty of intriguing characters.

Brett’s world is grim and imaginative, oozing with tantalizing darkness and great action scenes. It’s pretty much a no-brainer for an adaptation, so long as a studio is willing to give it the support it needs.

Interestingly, the Deadline report states that the series being developed is based on “The Warded Man World,” which sounds like it might be leaving the door open to include material from Brett’s latest work, a sequel series to The Demon Cycle that began with last year’s The Desert Prince.

In addition to Birnbaum and Kimsey, other producers include Spike Seldin (The A-Team) and Kearie Peak (Leverage, The Librarian) of Remarkable Media, and Simon Barry (Warrior Nun, Continuum) and Stephen Hegyes (Warrior Nun, Fifty Dead Men Walking) from Reality Distortion Field (RDF).

Barry will also serve as showrunner of the series, with JD Zeik (Witchblade, Ronin) penning the scripts.

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