Michael Scott, DillonScott Media and BCDF Pictures will adapt and produce American-Irish author Morgan Llywelyn’s New York Times and Time bestselling historical novel Lion of Ireland as a TV series. Scott will write the pilot and will serve as EP along with Barry Krost as well as Claude Dal Farra and Brian Keady of BCDF Pictures.
Lion of Ireland has sold over 40M copies worldwide and won numerous awards, including a Cultural Heritage Award, while Morgan was honored with an Exceptional Celtic Woman of the Year Award by Celtic Women International.
Lion of Ireland tells the story of Brian Boru, the greatest king Ireland has ever known, the man who liberated the Irish nation from centuries of Viking rule. It also tells the story of the extraordinary women who shaped his life and, ultimately, history itself: Fiona, a Druid priestess; Dierdre, a warrior princess, and Gormflaith a powerful Celtic Queen. These women fight alongside – and sometimes against – Brian in an age where women were the equal of men, where they had the right to own property in their own name, train as warriors, and also divorce – taking from the marriage everything they had brought to it. Ranged against Brian and his allies are the might of the Viking world who will stop at nothing to destroy the upstart Irish king. The series will follow multiple perspectives: Irish, Viking, and Druid, and will culminate in the epic Battle of Clontarf. If Brian Boru had not vanquished the Vikings in 1014, then the history of Europe and, indeed, America, would be quite different today.
“Lion is an extraordinary story of a truly outstanding man. It is time to give him the place he deserves on the world stage,” said Scott. “I am thrilled that the story of Brian Boru, the first High King of Ireland, who drove the Vikings out of his country, is coming to life and will be seen throughout the world,” added Llywelyn.
