Alcon Entertainment has acquired film rights to Shane Hegarty‘s fantasy-adventure novel series Darkmouth, Alcon co-founders and co-CEOs Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove announced Tuesday.
Hegarty, who was the arts editor of The Irish Times, got a six-figure advance for the series in 2013 from HarperCollins Children’s Books, which will publish the first novel in the series, Darkmouth #1: The Legends Begin, in the U.S. in April and in the U.K., Ireland and Australia at the end of January. The novel follows a 12-year-old boy who must battle man-eating monsters called Legends, who invade his Dickensian Irish town.
Simon Brooks (Love, Rosie) of Canyon Creek Films and 8:38 Productions’ Kira Davis (Prisoners), who brought Darkmouth to Alcon, will produce along with Kosove and Johnson.
Hegarty is repped by Marianne Gunn O’Connor of The Marianne Gunn O’Connor Literary, Film and TV Agency. Jeannette Hill and Scott Parish negotiated the deal for Alcon Entertainment with Gunn O’Connor.
