Warner moving from “Harry Potter” to “Merlin”
By Sean O’Connell
Hollywoodnews.com: Warner Bros. might be preparing to say goodbye to one wizard when the “Harry Potter” franchise draws to a close in July, but the studio isn’t giving up on magic altogether.
Instead, WB is moving ahead on a big-budgeted adaptation of “The Lost Years of Merlin,” the first book in T.A. Barron’s literary series, according to THR. This would be an origin story for the legendary wizard, tracking his journey “from being a boy washed on the shores of Wales with no memory and no home, to him becoming a young man learning to use his powers and ultimately defender of the natural world and eventual mentor to King Arthur,” the trade reports.
The project had been set up at Paramount, but shifted to Warner now that they have a screenwriter on board, The studio has hired Ed Whitworth, a script reader for Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Prods., to tackle the screenplay. It’s his first major script assignment.
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