But unlike most literary bidding wars, The Name of the Wind will see top brass from each studio descend on Comic-Con in San Diego this week to court Rothfuss. The author will be on hand for signings, panels and "An Evening with Pat Rothfuss" event on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Like George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones, another fantasy series of books that sat idle for years before generating Hollywood interest, The Name of the Wind has been around for nearly a decade. The book was published by DAW in March 2007 and spawned a second book, The Wise Man's Fear, in 2011. A third book, tentatively titled The Doors of Stone, is expected in 2016, and likely sparked the renewed interest in The Kingkiller Chronicle. The fact that the series is seen as having enormous franchise potential has the stoked the frenzy.

Rothfuss has released three other works set in the Kingkiller Chronicles world but not part of Kvothe's journey: the short story "How Old Holly Came to Be" in 2013's Unfettered, the novella "The Lightning Tree" in 2014's Rogues (co-edited by none other than Martin) and 2014's The Slow Regard of Silent Things.

The Kingkiller Chronicle series was previously optioned by 20th Century Fox Television for Arnon Milchan, Andrew Plotkin and Brad Weston to produce for New Regency Prods. Eric Heisserer (The Thing) adapted for the small screen. But the option lapsed, allowing Rothfuss to take the fantasy series back out to film studios.

Rothfuss is being repped in the deal by Jerry Kalajian at Intellectual Property Group.