Original Film

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Best-selling author Wesley Chu’s latest work is now the subject of a series adaptation from Sony Pictures Television according to details reported via Deadline‘s Nellie Andreeva on Tuesday. The IP in question is War Arts Saga – a trilogy of novels which will be published each in one year of each other beginning in 2022 from Random House’s Del Rey shingle – of which the rights have been reportedly sold to Neal Mortiz of Original Film. This is damn good news for anyone keeping up with the state of martial arts action on the small screen, and you can believe the niche may very well be waiting with baited breath to see what lies ahead for The CW’s upcoming Kung Fu series revisal. It’s the result of a huge awakening with the successes of hit shows like Into The Badlands and Warrior, which our contributor Kyle Wong spent weeks writing about in review of each episode. Even the following premise which you can read below sounds like something totally worth keeping a finger on the pulse for with this project: War Arts Saga is set in a world where martial arts are magic, and a grandmaster takes a spoiled would-be hero under her wing to fulfill his destiny of defeating an immortal god-king and ending a centuries-long war. It’s a wide-ranging, grounded fantasy epic that constantly subverts classic fantasy tropes by pitting themes of prophecy, religion, and destiny against the absurdity and reality of life in a fictional 2nd Century world. You have to give it to Chu for earning his place here. Number 1 with the NY Times and an award-winning author with ten books published following his “Tao” series which began in 2013, Tao spin-off book series “Io” years later and “The Eldest Curses” series after that – the latter on which he co-wrote the second book with Cassandra Clare, focusing on a 400-year-old bisexual half-Asian warlock, set in the popular “Shadowhunter” universe. How’s all that for putting diversity into practice? A trend if there ever was!Friend and contributor Christina Ortega Phillips has been the biggest voice on this platform when it comes to novels, particularly of the fantasy and horror variety, and so I haven’t spoken to her yet about this, and this latest might even be news to her, at that. To add to the validity, Chu is bringing the goods to the show as an executive producer on War Arts Saga, joining a team of other EPs that includes Jason Ning (Lucifer, The Expanse) who is also writing and showrunning, and Uta Briesewitz (The Wheel of Time, Westworld, Stranger Things) who is also directing. Moritz will also exec produce as will Original’s Head of TV Pavun Shetty.

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