The film rights to Christopher Paolini’s epic new novel from Tor Books, the bestseller To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, have been optioned! Paolini is set to write the feature film adaptation with his sister, Angela, and the siblings will also serve as executive producers.
Made Up Stories and Snoot Entertainment, who partnered on the 2019 zombie film Little Monsters, optioned the rights. The two companies have intriguing track records: Made Up Stories is run by Bruna Papandrea, who produced Big Little Lies, and the company has quite a few other television adaptations in the works, including Marie Lu’s YA science fiction novel Warcross. Made Up Stories is also producing a sci-fi comedy film starring Lupita Nyong’o that’s described as “Men In Black meets Miss Congeniality.” Snoot Entertainment’s previous productions include the film Blindspotting (which they’re developing as a TV series) and Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa.
Snoot’s Jess Wu Calder said in a statement: “I can’t think of a more urgent time to get involved in a project that has a Latinx heroine who, through her unshakable belief in the good in humanity, embarks on a mission to try to save the universe. We are so honored to be working with Christopher, Angela and the Made Up Stories team to tell this story now, when we as a society are at a moral crossroads, and we hope that this project can help show the path forward through this darkness.”
“Angela and I are incredibly excited to be working with Made Up Stories and Snoot Entertainment to bring this story to the silver screen,” Paolini said in a press release. “This book has been my passion project for over seven years, and I can’t wait to share it with audiences across the world.”
Here’s the summary of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars:
During a routine survey mission on an uncolonized planet, Kira finds an alien relic. At first she’s delighted, but elation turns to terror when the ancient dust around her begins to move.
As war erupts among the stars, Kira is launched into a galaxy-spanning odyssey of discovery and transformation. First contact isn’t at all what she imagined, and events push her to the very limits of what it means to be human.
While Kira faces her own horrors, Earth and its colonies stand upon the brink of annihilation. Now, Kira might be humanity’s greatest and final hope . . .
You can read the novel’s first few chapters starting right here.
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To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
