Resident Evil Producers Buy Up a Warded Man

Paul W.S. Anderson and producing partner Jeremy Bolt (RESIDENT EVIL franchise) have purchased the film rights to fantasy novel THE WARDED MAN from Peter V. Brett, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

Anderson is attached to direct and produce along with Bolt. Stephanie Johnson will exec produce, after bringing the novel to the duo's attention. Anderson and Bolt got the rights via their respective production companies: Tannhauser Gate and Bolt Pictures.

Brett worked in advertising in Manhattan with a two-hour commute and wrote the book on his BlackBerry. It's the first of a trilogy titled THE DEMON CYCLE, which launched last year in Australia and Europe, where it became a bestseller especially in Germany and in the U.K.

Set in an undetermined future where humans are attacked nightly by demons, mankind has resorted back to feudalism. Three young people have the potential power to change things, including the title character, a man who has spells, also known as wards, tattooed on his body.

"It was an occasion where it paid to be British," Anderson said. "It launched in the U.K. six months earlier than in the U.S., and we got wind of it when it was in galley form before the U.K. release. We think it has the potential to be a new 'Lord of the Rings'-style epic, and the book has all this great imagery."