Warner Bros. acquires rights to sci-fi novel series The Fourth Realm

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

I thought the name John Twelve Hawks sounded familiar…

Way back in February of 2010, I let you know that Fox had snagged rights to THE FOURTH REALM, a trilogy of sci-fi novel written by the ever-elusive Mr. Twelve Hawks. Well, looks like the time frame on those rights have lapsed, as Warner Bros. has just scooped the rights to the novel series, setting the first book, THE TRAVELER, into production ASAP.

The first book up for adaptation is entitled THE TRAVELER (published in ’06), which is set in a U.S. society run by a secret organization seeking to control the population via constant observation. Seeking to rebel against these constraints are an almost extinct group of people called Travelers, who can project their spirit into other dimensions, and their protectors, called Harlequins.

No writers or directors have been attached by the studio yet, but WATCHMEN scribe Alex Tse took a crack at the script for Fox a couple years ago. No telling how much, if any, of that draft will be used.

Apparently this Twelve Hawks fella, aside from ripping the name of the great character actor, avoids interviews and uses a voice scrambler when speaking with fans as to retain his anonymity. A weird dude, no doubt, hopefully his books reflect that.

WATCHMEN’s Malin Akerman