Deadline Hollywood reported on Monday that YA author Lesley Livingston’s Wondrous Strange trilogy has been optioned for TV by Shaftesbury Films. The Canadian production company, which opened a Los Angeles branch in 2011, is behind CBC’s long-running Murdoch Mysteries and the paranormal police procedural The Listener, which airs on CTV.
“To say that I’m excited about this would be a galactic understatement,” said Livingston via email. “Galactic.”
Originally released by HarperCollins Canada in 2008, Wondrous Strange tells the story of 17-year-old actress Kelley Winslow who has moved to New York City in pursuit of her big break. After being cast in a very off-broadway production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Kelley discovers that not only are fairies real, she’s one of them. The trilogy also includes the titles Draklight and Tempestuous.
Livingston confirms she will be part of the creative team as the series goes into development, though no timeline has been established. The author notes that it is “early days,” and that, though she can say the show will be true to the book’s beginning, she is unsure how the television series will unfold. “Will it touch on all three books in the first season? Who knows!”
Toronto-based Livingston has been prolific since the release of her successful debut, publishing two more trilogies – the Never series (including Once Every Never and its sequels) and the Starling trilogy – with final instalments of both appearing in 2014. The Haunting of Heck House, the second book in the author’s middle-grade Wiggins Weird series, co-authored by Jonathan Llyr, will appear in October from Puffin Canada.