Megan Whalen Turner’s award-winning novel The Thief is the latest adaptation on Disney’s plate.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that the studio optioned the book for a live-action film to be written by Brian Duffield (Love and Monsters, Insurgent) and produced by Jim Whitaker, whose recent credits include A Wrinkle in Time and Pete’s Dragon.
The Newbery Honor-winning The Thief is the first novel in the six-book Queen’s Thief series, which began in 1996 and only ended with this year’s acclaimed Return of the Thief. Turner’s work is incredibly beloved for its twists, its mythology, its shifting perspectives, and its emotional impact.
Here’s the publisher’s summary:
Buy the Book
The Thief
The most powerful advisor to the King of Sounis is the magus. He’s not a wizard, he’s a scholar, an aging solider, not a thief. When he needs something stolen, he pulls a young thief from the King’s prison to do the job for him.
Gen is a thief and proud of it. When his bragging lands him behind bars he has one chance to win his freedom, journey to a neighboring kingdom with the magus, find a legendary stone called Hamiathes’s Gift, and steal it.
The magus has plans for his King and his country. Gen has plans of his own.
For a little more backstory, you can read the intro to Natalie Zutter’s “What You Need to Know About The Queen’s Thief Series Before Reading Megan Whalen Turner’s Return of The Thief,” but if you haven’t read the series yet, be sure to stop before the spoilers start!
This news is only about The Thief, not the whole series, but of course a person can hope that the movie is brilliant and the whole series gets the movie treatment. There’s no word yet on production schedule, casting, or release date.
