Naomi Novik’s upcoming fantasy trilogy Scholomance is coming to the big screen! According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal Pictures has won the film rights to the series, beginning with an adaptation of book 1, A Deadly Education.
The publication reports that Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman (Beauty and the Beast, The Aeronauts) will produce. There’s no word yet on casting details or a production schedule.
First announced in February, A Deadly Education was described by publisher Del Rey as “a twisted, super dark, super modern, female-led Harry Potter.” Set at the titular hidden school for witchcraft and wizardry rumored to be run by the Devil, the Scholomance series follows protagonist El Higgins, who is gifted with a mysterious dark power and must make it to graduation with her fellow students—or meet an untimely end. An excerpt can be read at Entertainment Weekly, and you can also listen to Novik read from the book herself.
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Here’s the film adaptation’s official logline, from THR:
Enter a school of magic unlike any you have ever encountered. There are no teachers, no holidays, friendships are purely strategic, and the odds of survival are never equal. Once you’re inside, there are only two ways out: You graduate or you die. El Higgins is uniquely prepared for the school’s many dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out untold millions — never mind easily destroy the countless monsters that prowl the school. Except, she might accidentally kill all the other students, too. So El is trying her hardest not to use it… that is, unless she has no other choice.
“Lesson One” of The Scholomance, A Deadly Education, will be released on September 29.
Buy the Book
A Deadly Education
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