EXCLUSIVE: BCDF Pictures has picked up the rights to Raymond E. Feist’s blockbuster fantasy book franchise The Riftwar Saga with Atomic Blonde screenwriter Kurt Johnstad aboard to adapt the first novel Magician for television. Claude Dal Farra, Brice Dal Farra, Brian Keady, and Feist are executive producing. Fiction Riot is also producing and will develop mobile content for the series starting early next year.
The Riftwar Cycle, a New York Times bestseller from Penguin Random House, has sold over 20 million copies and has been translated into 25 languages. It is also one of the longest-running fantasy book series of all-time, with 32 novels and additional short stories.
In Magician the peace of the Kingdom of the Isles is destroyed when mysterious invaders from another world swarm the land. A young magician’s destiny leads him through a rift in the fabric of space and time to master the powers of a strange new magic, while his warrior friend inherits a legacy of savage power from an ancient civilization. Midkemia, the world upon which Riftwar is based, originated as a paper-based role-playing game. In addition to other gaming products, the universe developed by Feist and his friends has since been used as the basis for the creation of two video games. Marvel Comics has also published a comic book adaptation of the series.
Feist said, “I’ve been talking to film and TV people about adapting my work since the publication of Magician in 1982. I have said no repeatedly to deals simply because the ‘fit,’ was wrong. I am delighted to have finally met people with the understanding of the work and vision to match my own in bringing The Riftwar Saga to series television. I look forward to working with the talented crew at BCDF as much as they need and am excited at finally seeing Magician on the screen.”
Johnstad also wrote such pics as 300, 300: Rise of an Empire and Act of Valor.
Feist is repped by Ben Camardi of Harold Matson Company. Johnstad is repped by UTA and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern. BCDF is repped by Sheri Jeffrey at Hogan Lovells.
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