By Mike Fleming Jr.
October 4, 2013
EXCLUSIVE: Fox 2000 and The Donners Company’s Lauren Shuler Donnerhave set up the D.J. MacHale novel trilogy Sylo. Shuler Donner and Donners’ production president Jack Leslie brought in a package that hasThor Freudenthal to direct and Marc Guggenheim to adapt. Shuler Donner and Leslie will produce. The series follow the inhabitants of a small island who find themselves cut off from the mainland by a mysterious government military force. A group of teens escape to the mainland, only to discover that the inhabitants of the United States have all but vanished, and that they were actually being kept safe. They try to discover the source of the invasion and fight back. The first book was published this past July by Razorbill, with the second book being released in March 2014, and the third book later that fall.
Freudenthal and Guggenheim most recently worked at Fox 2000 on Percy Jackson And The Sea Of Monsters. and Freudenthal directed Diary Of A Wimpy Kid for Elizabeth Gabler’s division. He worked with Shuler Donner on his helming debut Hotel For Dogs. Guggenheim is exec producing Arrow for CW, wrote Green Lantern for Warner Bros, and is currently working on an animated movie for Guillermo del Toro.
MacHale wrote the series Pendragon, The Morphius Road trilogy and The Monster Princess and has directed/produced the TV series Are You Afraid Of The Dark?and Tower Of Terror. He will be exec producer on Sylo. Nick D’Angelo will oversee the project for the studio.
MacHale is repped by Gotham Group; Freudenthal by Gotham Group, Resolution, and attorney Rob Szymanski and Guggenheim by WME.