OLIVIA MARNE
Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert are going to rest on the remakes for a bit, opting to bring an original literary offering to the screen in future days.
The “Evil Dead” duo and Good Universe have acquired multipicture rights to Susan Ee’s bestselling Amazon Publishing book series “Angelfall. Joe Drake (”Hunger Games”) and Nathan Kahane (”Hope Springs”) will executive produce.
Initially self-published, Susan Ee’s fantasy novel was released this past fall through Amazon Children’s Publishing after being courted by multiple publishing houses. ”Angelfall” became an instant success across a broad demographic of readers resonating with the ravenous young adult crowd as well as adults. The book ranked #1 on Amazon’s Most Wished For Teen Book list and #1 best seller in Sci-fi & Fantasy. Susan Ee is a lawyer turned writer and ”Angelfall” is her debut novel. The second book in the series will release in Fall 2013.
Sam Raimi said, “Susan is a brilliant writer. She has created a fantastic world with instantly engaging and real characters. I immediately connected with the material and knew that she had conceived the perfect combination for a great fantasy film.”
Lucy Stille of Paradigm brokered the deal on behalf of Susan Ee whose book she first read as a self-published e-book and took on the project immediately because she so believed in the potential of the franchise. The deal was negotiated for the producers by Dan Freedman. Aaron Lam brought the book to the producers. Nicole Brown will oversee for Good Universe.
“Angelfall” goes a little like this…
Six weeks after angels of the apocalypse descend to demolish the modern world, street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back… even if that means making a deal with an enemy angel Raffe, a warrior who has been left bleeding and wingless. Having only each other to rely on for survival, the two journey towards the angel’s stronghold where she must risk everything to rescue her sister and he must decide whether to put himself at the mercy of his enemies for the chance to be made whole again.
“Angelfall” ranked #1 on the Amazon’s Most Wished For Teen Book list, #1 best seller in Sci-fi & Fantasy, and #4 in Young Adult best sellers just behind the Hunger Games trilogy. It was also a finalist for the 2011 Cybils Awards for Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction, ranked #1 on Good Reads’ Best Independent Novels and was included in Entertainment Weekly’s Top 12 Young Adult “Hot Titles” feature.
