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Universal Lands Young Adult Adaptation 'Daughter of Smoke & Bone'

by Ethan Anderton
December 4, 2013
Source: THR

Now that Universal has a release date set for the long delayed The Seventh Son (which they inherited from Warner Bros. when Legendary Pictures moved away from the studio), they're looking at getting another fantasy young adult adaptation off the ground. THR has word that Universal is adapting Laini Taylor's first book in a fantasy trilogy, Daughter of Smoke & Bone, published in September of 2011. Michael Gracey (who is supposed to direct Tom Hardy as Elton John in Rocketman) will be at the helm of the film which will again feature a female hero, hoping to cash in on the craze surrounding The Hunger Games franchise.

The book has plenty of accolades including being named among Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2011, Huffington Post's Top 10 Young Adult Book of 2011 and also one of The New York Times' Notable Children’s Books of 2011. Here's the official synopsis of the story:

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

The second book, Days of Bloody & Starlight, is already on shelves, and was a bestseller in 2012. The third and final book in the trilogy, Dreams of Gods & Monsters, will hit shelves next spring. Obviously, this could be the start of a new franchise for Universal, anxious to get their own franchise akin to Lionsgate's The Hunger Games or the hopefully successful forthcoming Divergent from their sister company Summit. Collateral screenwriter Stuart Beattie adapted the book with rewrites from the author herself, but it'll be up to Gracey to turn it into a successful motion picture. Anyone interested?

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