After the success of Ms. Marvel, it is no surprise that the director, Meera Menon, is being tapped to come on board as director for the adaption of this critically acclaimed fantasy series, the Scholomance Trilogy by Naomi Novik. The first book of the three, A Deadly Education, is making its way to the big screen with Menon at the helm.
The novels revolve around Galadriel “El” Higgins, a half-British half-Indian sorcerer attending Scholomance, a school for the practice of dark magic. She must grapple with her destructive powers as she learns to control them in an effort to survive until graduation. Scholomance is no Hogwarts though, it is a dark place trapped in a void outside of reality to keep its students safe from monsters whilst they study. There are no adults or teachers, and most of the students won’t make it to graduation.
The trilogy has seen great success with the first book instantly becoming a New York Times bestseller upon its debut. The second and third books also made it onto the New York Times bestseller list, with the second also winning the Lodestar Hugo Award. The author has written many other great titles, including the Nebula Award-winning Uprooted, the novel Spinning Silver and the nine-volume series, Temeraire.
Menon has also been on a roll herself, with the most recent Ms. Marvel being exceptionally well received, she was also the director for Equity, the critically acclaimed Wall Street-based financial thriller starring Anna Gunn, James Purefoy, and Alysia Reiner back in 2016. She has directed many well-known episodes for television as well including Apple TV+’s For All Mankind, AMC’s The Walking Dead, and HBO’s Westworld.
The adaption was brought to Universal by Carly Kleinbart who is also overseeing its development on behalf of Todd Lieberman (Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Wonder) and David Hoberman (The Fighter, Wonder). Emily Carmichael (Jurassic World Dominion) and Shantha Susman are working on adapting the screenplay.