Amblin Partners has acquired feature film rights to The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, the sci-fi novel written by Claire North. It won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
The novel follows a man repeatedly born into the same life, who remembers all his past experiences, as he seeks to save the world by outmaneuvering a similarly gifted rival who’s willing to make any sacrifice to attain a godlike knowledge. Wes Ball (director of The Maze Runner franchise) will direct. Melissa Iqbal (Humans, The Nevers) has adapted the novel for the big screen.
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Academy Award nominees Pete Czernin and Graham Broadbent (Emma, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) of Blueprint Pictures, which originally optioned and developed the project, and Joe Hartwick Jr (Jumper, The Maze Runner) of Oddball Entertainment will produce. Jeb Brody, Amblin Partners’ President of Production, and Andrew Calof, VP of Creative Affairs, will oversee for the studio.
Over three films, Ball’s Maze Runner franchise grossed a combined $925 million worldwide. After its conclusion, the 39-year-old director was tapped to adapt the Boom! Comics series Mouse Guard into a big-budget feature for FOX (FOXA), but Disney (DIS) chose to shelve the project due to budget concerns after its acquisition of the studio. In December, it was reported that Ball was developing 20th Century’s new Planet of the Apes film under Disney.
