Divine Rights Media’s Mike Landry has partnered with Derek S. Jancisin to option the rights to Andy McDermott’s bestselling Wilde/Chase book series. The hope is to hatch a franchise, beginning with the first book in the series, The Hunt for Atlantis. Aaron Berg has been set to write and produce along with Landry, with Jancisin exec producing. The latter intends to finance development and is a managing director and Wealth Management Advisor at Merrill Lynch in Pittsburgh. This marks his first foray into film production.
The books follow the dangerous exploits of New York-based archeologist Nina Wilde, who teams with cavalier ex-SAS British bodyguard Eddie Chase. Jancisin intends to finance along with additional partners, and they hope to engage in a multi-continent shoot in 2020. In the first book, which was published in 2007, an eccentric billionaire sends Wilde and Chase on a globe-trotting race to discover the legendary lost city and stop a sinister group from possessing the ancient mystical power that sank it 11,000 years ago.
There have been 15 books in the series, rights for which came as part of the deal that Landry and Jancisin can use to build a series.
Netflix has acquired a potential franchise property in The Hunt For Atlantis, an adaptation of the Andy McDermott bestseller. The project has been in the works for a bit with Aaron Berg writing and producing. At Netflix, he will be joined as producer by 6th & Idaho’s Matt Reeves & Adam Kassan. Mike Landry will produce with Berg, Reeves and Kassan, and Derek S. Jancisin will be exec producer.
The book is the first in what is called the Wilde/Chase series that numbers 15 books. Years after the disappearance of her parents, brilliant NYU grad student Nina Wilde teams with cavalier ex-SAS British bodyguard Eddie Chase when a tech-billionaire sends them on a globe-trotting race to discover the legendary lost city. Subsequent titles revolved around the pursuit of the mythical sword Excalibur, the great hall of Valhalla, the Fountain of Youth and golden city of El Dorado.
