In a move that surprised pretty much everyone, Lucasfilm lost the rights to adapt Tomi Adeyemi’s highly acclaimed novel, Children of Blood and Bone to Paramount Pictures. Now, it seems that the Kathleen Kennedy run subsidiary will be steering away from new IPs.
The rights had initially been purchased by Fox 2000, but after Disney bought 21st Century Fox for a hefty £54.7 billion ($71.3 billion), Children of Blood and Bone was handed over to Lucasfilm, becoming one of the few Fox projects kept alive after the acquisition was completed.
Interest in the movie adaptation grew and grew, and it seemed to check all the boxes for a potential ongoing fantasy franchise, not unlike Warner Bros’ Wizarding World franchise, something which the Disney Corporation is still yet to create.
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The movie was reconfirmed during Disney’s 2020 Investors Day when Kathleen Kennedy mentioned the film during the Lucasfilm panel alongside Indiana Jones 5 and an abundance of Star Wars shows for Disney+.
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Unfortunately, the relationship between Disney and Adeyemi seemed to have soured as she was displeased with how long the movie was taking to enter active development as well Lucasfilm’s reluctance to hire her to write the screenplay.
After months of stalemate disagreements, Lucasfilm let the rights lapse, and the project was put into turnaround in Autumn/Fall 2021. Multiple studios entered the bidding war, including Universal Studios and Netflix, but Paramount Pictures would ultimately win.
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Paramount won the bid, not only for the sum they offered but agreeing to several conditions:
- Guaranteed cinema release
- Creative Control for Adeyemi
- Agreeing to allow Adeyemi to write the film’s script.
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Now that Lucasfilm has lost a hot new intellectual property, trade reports state that the company will be steering away from developing new projects and instead focus on the properties already under their wing. These include the upcoming Willow series, Indiana Jones 5, and according to reports, multiple Star Wars shows and movies.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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