Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci have come aboard to produce Dragonology, Universal’s fantasy adventure based on the children’s book series.
The studio picked up the series in 2008, initially setting Leonard Hartman to pen the script. Hartman now will act as an exec producer, while Kurtzman and Orci will oversee the hiring of a new scribe and the writing of a new script.
The books are faux fiction and based on the conceit that dragons actually exist as revealed by the Victorian dragonologist Ernest Drake. The studio’s take revolves around a team of dragonologists who embark on a quest to avert a plot to use the world’s remaining dragons to wipe out humanity.
The series was devised and published in the U.K. in 2003 by Templar and in the U.S. by Candlewick Press and now has 12 titles and more than 6 million copies sold.
STORY: Universal Signs First-Look Deal With Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci
Dragonology falls under Kurtzman and Orci’s K/O Paper Products’ two-year, first-look deal with Universal that it signed in May. The company is now overseeing reimaginings of Universal monster movie titles Van Helsing and The Mummy. The duo are writers and producers on Star Trek 2 and slated to write and exec produce the sequel to The Amazing Spider-Man.
Kurtzman and Orci are repped by CAA and attorneys Gendler & Kelly.
