Legendary is set to produce a big-screen adaptation of Claire McFall’s fantasy novel, Ferryman, the first book in her Y.A. trilogy. Even more exciting? The adaptation is getting a female director. Kelly Marcel will make the transition from screenwriter to director for the feature film, bringing McFall’s mythical story to cinematic life.
Marcel is no stranger to adaptations, either. She penned the script for the first Fifty Shades of Grey film, and co-wrote 2018’s breakout super villain hit Venom. She was nominated for a BAFTA in 2014 for co-writing Saving Mr. Banks, about P.L. Travers’ war with Disney over the rights to her Mary Poppins books. Ferryman will be her first time in the director’s chair.
McFall’s novel is based on the myth of Charon, the ferryman of Hades who takes souls to the underworld. The official synopsis reads:
Ferryman follows a young girl named Dylan as she emerges from the debris of a train crash on an empty Scottish landscape. Believing herself to be the only survivor, she learns instead that she is the only fatality – and is trapped in a dangerous limbo. She meets a mysterious boy named Tristan, her “ferryman,” sent to guide her through the wasteland and into the afterlife, but they fall in love with perilous consequences.
Templar originally published the book in the U.K., and it was later a breakout hit in China where it accumulated 90,000 reviews on Dangdang, one of China’s biggest online retailers. The sequel, Tresspassers, was also a bestseller; together with Ferryman, they have sold over 3 million copies worldwide. The third and final book in the series is set for a spring 2019 release.
McFall took to Twitter to express her “pee-your-pants” excitement over the movie news.
So… this is happening.
And I think it’s fair to say that I am pee-your-pants excited about it. @MissMarcel I am so delighted that you agreed to take on Ferryman ❤️ https://t.co/K1CoPSZ4b0
— Claire McFall (@mcfall_claire) February 5, 2019
No release date has been set, but we can likely look forward to it sometime in the next few years.
Image: Templar
Editor’s Note: Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks