Warner Brothers Gears Up For Their Next Fantasy Franchise With Beautiful Creatures

Warner Brothers has acquired Beautiful Creatures, the first of a five-novel southern Gothic fantasy series by authors Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. The book is technically being released today, but the many positive reviews over at Amazon shows that it's been available to some for a few months. Richard LaGravanese (P.S. I Love You, Freedom Writers) is scripting and directing.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

From the description alone, Beautiful Creatures appears to be mixing successful elements from Harry Potter (magic and mystery) and Twilight (star-crossed lovers). This thing will do gangbusters I tells ya.

This is LaGravanese's first fantasy project, but he seems excited by the material:

I love supernatural stories that have well drawn mythologies, and I liked that this book has all the basic elements of a classic first love story with a supernatural layer over it. So the first time they hear the words boyfriend and girlfriend, they accidentally overhear each other telepathically. Their first kiss comes after he saves her life and their first date is part of a bigger adventure that leads to the unraveling of the mysterious curse that haunts her family.

Warner Brothers is being very proactive by picking up this series so soon, and I can't blame them. We're nearing the end of the Harry Potter films (though their magical money-printing powers will live on eternally), and every studio wants to be holding the rights to the next big fantasy series.

[Source: Variety]