Exclusive: David Yates Possibly Attached to Direct Bill Willingham's Fables
By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (9)
British director David Yates, responsible for the last two Harry Potter films, as well as the final two, has been the subject of a big rumor this week — he was reportedly interested in taking over the director’s chair on The Hobbit after the departure of Guillermo del Toro (of late, the rumor is that Peter Jackson may return to block Bret Ratner or David Dobkin from taking over directing duties). That rumor was denied by a rep for Yates.
Well, here’s another rumor that we’ll give David Yates’ rep a chance to knock down. We have word that Yates is up to direct Bill Willingham’s Fables, as a possible follow-up to Harry Potter (or at least a follow-up to a follow-up). This is just a rumor, and does not come from our more reliable Hollywood Cog. However, we’ve been given fairly convincing evidence to definitively suggest that David Yates is, at least, in the mix and that a Fables movie is, at the very least, in the early stages of development, so it’s not a rumor that should be quickly dismissed.
However, though the project is apparently a priority over at Warner Brothers, there’s not a writer on board yet and the potential ABC mini-series based on the graphic novel series may present either a conflict or a launching point, which assumes that ABC’s television series is going ahead. That’s not information I have available, although if DC Comics and Warner Brothers are developing a film, common sense would suggest that the series is all but dead. Best I can tell, there’s been little or no movement on the series since it was announced a year and a half ago.
Unfortunately, that’s all I have to go on at the moment, other than the fact that Gregory Noveck (Jonah Hex) is producing.
For those unfamiliar with Willingham’s graphic novel series, here’s a synopsis from Seth, from his Guide a few years back on the Comics for the Pajiba Mindset:
Fables starts with a relatively simple premise: Many of the characters we know and love from various fables and stories now happen to live, in relative secrecy, in New York City. Long ago, they all lived in their own little various realms, but they’ve fled into exile over the centuries after a big baddy (generally referred to as the Emperor or the Adversary) conquered all of their homelands (and they chose our happy little realm of Earth because, so far, it seems to be the one place that the Adversary isn’t interested in getting his mitts on). So now they live in modern-day NYC amongst the “mundanes” (i.e., you and me), living as a secret community they’ve dubbed “Fabletown.” While the mayor of Fabletown is King Cole, things are really run by his deputy, Snow White. She’s several centuries divorced from Prince Charming (who’s also divorced from his subsequent wives, Briar Rose [a.k.a. Sleeping Beauty] and Cinderella), and she’s a cold-hearted gal who never wants to hear any reference to her “tawdry little adventure with those seven dwarves.”
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Comments
Posted by: Patty O'Green at June 16, 2010 11:42 AM
I need to finish this series. I think I've only read the first three. When it comes to graphic novels, I move quickly through each one, but reeeeally slow from book to book.