DreamWorks and Harry Potter producer team-up for Shadow and Bone

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Here comes the umpteenth attempt to bring the next big fantasy franchise to the screen. But at least this one has flesh-eating monsters in it!

DreamWorks Studios announced today that it has acquired the feature film rights to Leigh Bardugo’s debut novel SHADOW AND BONE, a young adult novel that was first published in June of 2012.

The short version of the plot: A young woman must learn to control her newly discovered power in order to save her country from the Shadow Fold, a creature-filled darkness that threatens to overrun the land.

David Heyman, who produced the HARRY POTTER films, will oversee the project along with UP IN THE AIR producer Jeffrey Clifford. No director or screenwriter has been announced yet.

“Shadow and Bone” debuted on the New York Times’ Best Sellers list with Bardugo being one of the few first-time authors to make that list this year. The book has been selling consistently since its June 5th publishing date and Macmillan recently went back for a third printing at the end of July. Amazon also selected “Shadow and Bone” as both an adult and children’s Book of the Month pick and is the only title to have that distinction.

Now here’s the full version of the book’s plot:

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha…and the secrets of her heart.