Chris Colfer, Shawn Levy Tackling The Land of Stories Movie for Fox (Exclusive)
Twentieth Century Fox and Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps are teaming with Chris Colfer to adapt the actor-turned-author’s best-selling fantasy series The Land of Stories for the big screen.
Fox has picked up the rights to the book series with 21 Laps’ Levy and Dan Levine on board to produce.
In a striking move, the 27-year-old Colfer will not only write the script adapting The Wishing Spell, the first book of the multimillion-selling series, but will also make his directorial debut with the project.
Launched with Wishing Spell in 2012, when Colfer was in the middle of his six-season award-winning turn on Fox’s musical comedy series Glee, the Land of Stories universe has grown to include novels, illustrated picture books, audiobooks, in-world chapter books and an upcoming graphic novel. The sixth and final novel in the series, Worlds Collide, is set to be published July 11, with Colfer embarking on a 20-city author tour celebrating the series’ finale.
Wishing Spell follows twins Alex and Conner Bailey who, after the loss of their father, are transported into a magic book in which the classic fairy tales have come to life. Thrust into a world where they come face-to-face with the characters they’ve only read about in stories, the kids must fight dark forces in order to return home.
Colfer and Rob Weisbach will executive produce. Fox’s Kira Goldberg will oversee development for the studio.
21 Laps, which is flying high thanks to the eight Oscar nominations and hit status of its 2016 sci-fi drama Arrival, is currently in production on season two of the Netflix series Stranger Things. It is also in postproduction on Fox’s adaptation of the Alexandra Bracken novel The Darkest Minds, and has Jonathan Tropper-penned drama Kodachrome, starring Ed Harris and Jason Sudeikis, in the can.
Colfer first made a name for himself playing Kurt Hummel on the ground-breaking Glee, a role that garnered him a Golden Globe and multiple People’s Choice Awards and Emmy nominations. It was as the show was ending that his career as an author began taking off, with the Land of Stories books becoming New York Times best-sellers (Wishing Spell was No. 1 for two weeks) and translated into 20 languages.
Colfer has worked as a screenwriter before, having penned the 2014 Glee episode “Old Dog, New Tricks” and the 2012 movie Struck by Lightning, in which he also starred. He is repped by ICM Partners, Rob Weisbach Creative Management and Myman Greenspan.
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