Zack Stentz to Pen Script for ‘Wheel of Time’ Film Adaptation

The first of three planned movies based on Robert Jordan’s epic world of magic and mysticism has found a writer.

Zack Stentz, co-writer of Thor and X-Men: First Class, has begun work on a script for Age of Legends, to be based on Jordan’s best-selling series of books, The Wheel of Time, which is already the subject of a long-gestating TV show at Amazon Studios. The fantasy and sci-fi film will be produced by Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon of iwot productions and Ted Field and Justin Smith of Radar Pictures.

“I’ve been a fan of Robert Jordan’s work for many years, and it is especially his allusions to the origins and backstory of The Wheel of Time that I have always found most intriguing. I’m excited to be bringing this era Robert Jordan conceptualized to life,” said Stentz in a statement.

Age of Legends will be set several millennia before the time of the books and in a futuristic utopia powered by a magical force shared by men and women known as the One Power. When an unspeakable evil is unleashed upon the world and men using the One Power become insane and destroy much of the planet, a small band of women unite under the White Tower and are humanity’s last hope of survival.

No studio partner or distributor for the Age of Legends picture has yet been named. But the film will complement the storylines soon to be featured in a TV series from Sony Pictures Television and Amazon Studios.

Spanning 14 volumes, The Wheel of Time has sold more than 90 million copies internationally, making it the biggest-selling fantasy series since The Lord of the Rings (which, coincidentally, Amazon is also adapting for TV).

Eva Longoria, James Leon and Mike McGuiness are executive producers on the Age of Legends film.

Stentz is represented by Circle of Confusion and WME.