Back in summer 2016, Skydance Television announced global live-action rights to Sword Art Online in a partnership with Kadowawa Corp with aims of bringing the VRMMORPG sci-fi to television. Skydance Television has now signed a deal with Patrick Massett and John Zinman - writer-producers whose credits include Friday Night Lights, The Blacklist and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

The duo will serve as writers, showrunners and executive producers on the series. Together with Massett and Zinman, Laeta Kalogridis (Avatar, Altered Carbon) will write the pilot episode and serve as an executive producer alongside David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Marcy Ross.





"Patrick and John have shown incredible range in their storytelling capabilities, from subtle character drama to big, world-building action, and we are beyond fortunate that they have joined the Skydance family," said Skydance Television president Marcy Ross. "We're already deep in development with Patrick, John and Laeta on our larger-than-life Skydance SAO series in which we aim not only to satisfy the franchise's enthusiastic sci-fi and anime fan base but also to appeal to new TV audiences the world over."

"The fantastical world of SAO offers an unparalleled opportunity to tell stories that resonate on both an epic and human scale. We couldn't ask for better partners than Skydance and Laeta to help us bring this global pop culture phenomenon to new life on television," said Massett and Zinman in a joint statement.





via Hollywood Reporter



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