MTV is teaming with Jon Favreau and Smallville duo Al Gough and Miles Millar to adapt Terry Brooks’ international best-selling fantasy novels Shannara. Favreau will direct and executive produce the project alongside Gough and Millar. The Smallville duo will write and executive produce if the project goes to series. The development deal comes with a straight-to-series commitment, so should network brass like the script, the show will bypass the pilot stage.
The Shannara series first started in 1977 with The Sword of Shannara and currently encompasses 25 books, with more to come. But the producers plan to base the first season on The Elfstones of Shannara. The second title in the series, published in 1982, spent 16 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list.
“I believe we have formed the perfect team to bring Shannara to life onscreen,” Brooks said. ”The adaptation of these books is very important to me, and I believe we are on the right track in our endeavor to create an epic television series that both new and old fans of the books will love.”
Warner Bros. picked up rights to the Shannara universe in 2007 for a feature film. The studio’s rights expired in 2010. We’ll see how this project will turn out.
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