We are happy to see Stuart Beattie adapt the Screenplay for Fall of Gods. Story at trackingboard.
I, Frankenstein writer-director Stuart Beattie has been brought on to adapt the illustrated novel FALL OF GODS for 20th Century Fox. Created by designer Rasmus Berggreen and writer Michael Vogt of Mood Studios, the fantasy tale is a unique marriage of the novel and graphic novel. The Maze Runner helmer Wes Ball is set to direct the fantasy epic, which has a Braveheart-esque angle on classic Norse gods and mythology.
Set in the realm of Midgard, the story centers on two races, humans and the jotnar, struggling to co-exist after a coalition of chieftains drove the jotnar race from Midgard. Now, from each side of the border, humans and jotnar eye each other with hatred and suspicion. When a retired warrior’s wife, who’s also the estranged daughter of one of Midgard’s most powerful chieftains, is mysteriously kidnapped, he takes up the hatchet and sets out to rescue her. But he risks unleashing the wild demon buried deep within him and losing his soul in the process.
Ball is producing with Joe Hartwick Jr. of OddBall Entertainment, Brooklyn Weaver of Energy Entertainment, and Steve Tzirlin of R&G Productions. Mark Roybal and Jon Wu are the studio executives for Fox, with Joe Vogelsang overseeing for OddBall.
Fox acquired the rights to the illustrated novel in a preemptive film rights deal with an eye on a jumpstarting a new studio franchise. Initially funded through a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, Fall of Gods is now available for purchase online.
Beattie has some experience with being a franchise starter as one of several writers credited with the story that launched Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean series. His other credits include the Michael Mann pic Collateral, the Clive Owen-Jennifer Aniston thriller Derailed, and Paramount’s G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra. Beattie recently worked on the script to Fox’s Splinter Cell adaptation with Tom Hardy and a Halo TV pilot for Showtime and XBox.
Beattie is repped by Paradigm.