A film adaptation of beloved comic book series ‘Fables’ has been in the works for some time now, with director Nikolaj Arcel (‘A Royal Affair’) attached to bring the dark fantasy story to the big screen. There’s been little word on development of the project recently, but that just changed with the hiring of ‘X-Men: First Class’ screenwriter (and Matthew Vaughn collaborator) Jane Goldman.

In a new interview with Comic Book Resources, producer David Heyman provided an update on the progress of the intriguing film adaptation of ‘Fables,’ revealing that Goldman has been brought in to work on a new draft of the script:

[Arcel] did a draft, and now he’s supervising Jane, who’s doing a draft. Hoping that it’ll come in and we’ll be able to move to the next stage. All these things always take longer than you want. And ‘Fables’ is not easy, by any means, but I think it’ll be pretty great.

As Heyman notes, ‘Fables’ is a bit tricky to adapt—the Bill Willingham comic series tells the story of a community of characters or “Fables,” best-known from fairy tales (Snow White, the Big Bad Wolf, Prince Charming, etc.), who are exiled from their mythical Homelands and now reside in New York under aliases. The first collection of stories focuses on the apparent murder of Rose Red (Snow White’s sister), and the investigation by Detective Bigby Wolf (aka the Big Bad Wolf).

But Goldman is familiar with tricky adaptations, having previously co-written ‘Kick-Ass’ with director Matthew Vaughn. She also wrote the screenplays for ‘The Woman in Black’ and Vaughn’s upcoming film ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service.’ Having Goldman work on ‘Fables’ is a promising development.

Heyman went on to explain that while adapting ‘Fables’ is challenging, that’s part of what drew him to the project. Heyman, who previously produced all eight ‘Harry Potter’ films as well as the new family film ‘Paddington,’ discusses the world of ‘Fables’ and why he’s interested in the characters:

I’m drawn to stories about outsiders, and I think the Fables are outsiders. They’re people torn from the place where they were raised, by The Adversary. They arrive in a New York City-type place, and how we’re approaching is that they’re people who are all separate, and how they ultimately have to form the community in order to survive. They’re all inhabiting their own little universes within this world. But they have to form this community, and that really appealed to me. And I just think the characters are so vivid. And I also think the farm is, again, it’s very human. That’s what I like. It’s a challenging film.

That “farm” that Heyman mentions is a fictional place in upstate New York, where the “Fables” who can’t fit in with human society are sent to live. Now that Goldman is working on a new draft for the film, we can’t imagine this project being delayed too much longer.

 

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