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‘House Of Night’: ‘ShadowHunters’ Producers Adapting YA Vampire Saga For TV
EXCLUSIVE: ShadowHunters producers Don Carmody and David Cormican will adapt the New York Times No. 1 bestselling House of Night series, the YA vampire saga written by the mother-daughter tandem of P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast, for television. Carmody and Cormican board the project with Davis Films, according to Victor Hadida, Davis Films’ president.
Hadidia said Oscar-winning producer Carmody (Chicago) and International Emmy-nominated producer Cormican (Tokyo Trial) are the ideal team to adapt the fang saga into a live-action TV series through their Don Carmody Televison, the 6-year-old shingle that most recently delivered Northern Rescue for Netflix.
Carmody has considerable history with Davis, having produced both Silent Hill films, a few Resident Evil installments and most recently Lucky Day by writer-director Roger Avary.
“My late brother Samuel and I purchased the production rights to this amazing set of books a few years ago [before his death last year], and had been looking for the right partners to bring it to fruition,” Hadidia said. “I am thrilled to have our good friends Don and David join us on this journey to re-create the remarkable universe that P.C. and Kristin have created.”
Carmody added: “We have known and worked together with Samuel and Victor on multiple successful projects over the past fifteen years or longer. We are honored that Victor asked us to join with him in realizing the vision of these books, which we know meant so much to Samuel.”
Story is set in a world where “vampyres” coexist openly with humanity but remain feared and widely misunderstood figures. The action follows Zoey Redbird, 16, a human student who has been selected to enroll in the House of Night academy, a finishing school that will prepare her for the shift to un-life as a full vampyre.
The saga struck a vein in the international YA marketplace by reaching No. 1 on the U.S., German, and UK bestseller lists. The central series is now at 16 novels and novellas with 13 million sold in the U.S. and more than 21 million copies sold in 30 languages across 41 countries.
House of Night has staked-out a spot on the New York Times Children’s Series bestseller list for 153 weeks now and may qualify for long-term residency status on the USA Today bestseller list after 424 weeks on the tally (and counting). A spinoff series (House of Night Other World) with Blackstone Publishing will deliver its third novel to stores October 29, with a fourth book set for July 2020. There’s also a Dark Horse Comics tie-in series, a vampyre handbook from St. Martin’s Press, and a tie-in card game from Random House.
P.C. Cast, the elder half of the Cast duo, has high hopes for the project: “Kristin and I are thrilled that Don and David have joined Team Cast! We love their work and believe they will respect the House of Night mythos as they bring it alive in a new medium. We’re excited to see what the future will bring.”
Carmody knows the sector after producing the feature film adaptation of the Cassandra Clare YA novels The Mortal Instruments, before partnering with Cormican for ShadowHunters for Disney’s Freeform.