Sherlock Holmes producer Dan Lin just can't stay away from fantasy worlds. Only yesterday we brought an update on his attempt to bring Jeff Smith’s graphic series Bone to the screen and now he’s part of the team getting Tad Williams’ sci-fi novel set Otherland adapted.
The story is set 100 years in the future and finds a group of unlikely heroes trying to evade an assassin while they venture through huge digital worlds. En route, they must uncover a conspiracy that threatens nothing less than the destruction of humanity.
Williams’ books hit US bookshelves between 1996 and 2001, with the plot spread across City Of Golden Shadow, River Of Blue Fire, Mountain Of Black Glass and Sea Of Silver Light.
With Warners executives hoping to turn them into a Pile Of Green Money, Lin has hired John Scott III – whose zombie script Maggie opened plenty of doors after it landed on the top 10 of 2011’s Black List – to get to work unpacking the plot. While nothing has yet been said about it, you can bet they’re all thinking franchise.
Lin is currently overseeing something a little more down to Earth, as he’s overseeing Ruben Fleischer’s work on Gangster Squad. But he’s also helping to set up L****ego: The Piece Of The Resistance, which 21 Jump Street duo Chris Miller and Phil Lord are targeting as their next film. Scott, meanwhile has another high profile sci-fi adaptation keeping him busy: he’s been working on Isaac Asimov’s Caves Of Steel for Fox.