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WARNER BROTHERS AND GRAHAM KING FILMS TO MAKE “HYPERION”
The following news release appeared in The Hollywood Reporter on April 2nd of this year –
Warner Bros. nabs 'Hyperion Cantos' adaptation
By Borys Kit and Gregg Goldstein
April 2, 2008,
Producer Graham King has set up Dan Simmons' award-winning science fiction book series "Hyperion Cantos" at Warner Bros., with Trevor Sands on board to adapt the first two books as one feature. King is producing via his GK Films banner.
The first book, "Hyperion," won the Hugo Award for best novel in 1990, while the second, "The Fall of Hyperion," was nominated for a Nebula Award for best novel.
"Hyperion" deals with a space war, with most of the action taking place on a planet named Hyperion, known not only for its electricity-spewing trees but also for the Time Tombs, large artifacts that can move through time. The tombs are guarded by a monster called the Shrike, which impales people on metal trees.
King acquired the rights to the series several years ago, but its structure, inspired by Boccaccio's "Decameron" and Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," and its multiple timelines made the task of adapting it into a feature unwieldy and challenging.
Brought in by GK Films' Grey Rembert and Gail Lyon, Sands won over the execs by taking a selective approach to the two novels' multiple points of view in a way that managed to coherently and unconfusingly tell the story.
Lynn Harris is overseeing at Warners.
Sands co-wrote and directed the 2002 indie "Inside," starring Jeremy Sisto. Other writing credits include the Sony sci-fi project "Resurrection," Dimension's "Six Billion Dollar Man" and an adaptation of David Brin's sci-fi novel "Startide Rising" for Paramount and producer Mace Neufeld.
He is repped by Endeavor and manager Jewerl Ross.
Borys Kit reported from Los Angeles; Gregg Goldstein reported from New York.
Both the background and the current information on this project are – as always – more complicated than represented in the studio press release. Dan fills us –
“All of four of the Hyperion Cantos novels and my novella “Orphans of the Helix,” which is also set in the Hyperion-universe, were purchased for a six-figure sum by Graham King’s company IEG – International Entertainment Group – about three years ago.
“The original idea that sold the film – or franchise of films -- was based on a treatment I wrote and it was pitched and presented by two able young screenwriters. In that approach, I had deconstructed all four of the Hyperion novels so that the messiah-character of Aenea and her lover and protector Raul Endymion would have a presence in all of the films, including the first one – Hyperion. Their love story would be the continuous thread that would connect the three or four films of a Hyperion Cantos movie franchise.
“It was the actor Leonardio DiCaprio who first showed active interested in this idea for the film andfor some time there was discussion of him doing the film with director Martin Scorsese. The first draft of the screenplay was written two years ago – not by me – but producer Graham King didn’t go with that approach and the project stayed inactive since then (even to the point of my contractually not being able to announce the details of the purchase of the books.)
“Now Graham King Films has joined in partnership with Warner Brothers to make the film version of Hyperion. As you can see in the Hollywood Reporter release above, one approach now being discussed is to combine the first two novels – Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion – into one film (rather as Peter Weir combined two Patrick O’Brian books to make the film “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”) – but as is always the case in the early days of such a project, everything is in flux.
“While writer Trevor Sands has been brought aboard by Graham King for early work on story concepts, there’s been no final selection of either a definitive screenwriter or director yet.
“However, there is one director I know to be under consideration who would be wonderful for “Hyperion: The Movie.” I’m not at liberty to mention his name yet, but this director knows the Hyperion Cantos novels very, very well and has a strong sense of the cinematic potential of literary SF. Indeed, one of this director’s upcoming films is a much-anticipated reworking of an SF-movie classic.
“Those who know movies and movie-making know that there’s never a guarantee of a project being completed until the last shots are in the can – and even then some films are never released. But the Graham King Films – Warner Brothers announcement of the Hyperion Cantos purchase and their plans to go ahead with the “Hyperion” movie is a huge step forward.”
Warner Bros. nabs 'Hyperion Cantos' adaptation
By Borys Kit and Gregg Goldstein
April 2, 2008,
Producer Graham King has set up Dan Simmons' award-winning science fiction book series "Hyperion Cantos" at Warner Bros., with Trevor Sands on board to adapt the first two books as one feature. King is producing via his GK Films banner.
The first book, "Hyperion," won the Hugo Award for best novel in 1990, while the second, "The Fall of Hyperion," was nominated for a Nebula Award for best novel.
"Hyperion" deals with a space war, with most of the action taking place on a planet named Hyperion, known not only for its electricity-spewing trees but also for the Time Tombs, large artifacts that can move through time. The tombs are guarded by a monster called the Shrike, which impales people on metal trees.
King acquired the rights to the series several years ago, but its structure, inspired by Boccaccio's "Decameron" and Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," and its multiple timelines made the task of adapting it into a feature unwieldy and challenging.
Brought in by GK Films' Grey Rembert and Gail Lyon, Sands won over the execs by taking a selective approach to the two novels' multiple points of view in a way that managed to coherently and unconfusingly tell the story.
Lynn Harris is overseeing at Warners.
Sands co-wrote and directed the 2002 indie "Inside," starring Jeremy Sisto. Other writing credits include the Sony sci-fi project "Resurrection," Dimension's "Six Billion Dollar Man" and an adaptation of David Brin's sci-fi novel "Startide Rising" for Paramount and producer Mace Neufeld.
He is repped by Endeavor and manager Jewerl Ross.
Borys Kit reported from Los Angeles; Gregg Goldstein reported from New York.