Be prepared for an extremely nerdy sentence: Iron Man director Jon Favreau and Smallville showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar are joining forces to adapt Terry Brooks’ Shannara series.

The series is just in the development stage at this point, but it seems reasonably likely that MTV will pick it up given Shannara’s straight-to-series development deal. That means if that if the script is good they will greenlight a whole season, no advance pilot required. That first season, if it happens, will be based on the series’ second book, The Elfstones of Shannara.

It was only a matter of time: The Shannara series is huge, with 25 books published since 1977, and Elfstones spent 16 weeks on the New York Times‘ bestseller list. According to The Hollywood Reporter not only is Shannara the highest-selling fantasy series yet to be adapted, but Brooks is the second highest-selling living fantasy author. (Three guesses as to who holds the #1 spot.) Warner Bros. had the series optioned for a while, and at one point Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire‘s Mike Newell was attached to direct, but obviously that never happened.

The MTV series, if it’s picked up, will be written by Gough and Millar and executive produced by them, Favreau, and Dan Farah, whose Farah Films acquired the rights to the series last year. THR also notes that Favreau will direct, but how many episodes is unclear.

One person happy about the adaptation is, obviously, Brooks:

“I believe we have formed the perfect team to bring Shannara to life onscreen. The adaptation of these books is very important to me, and I believe we are on the right track in our endeavor to create an epic television series that both new and old fans of the books will love.”

I’m cautiously optimistic myself. I’ve never read Shannara, but saying no to a high fantasy series? Not bloody likely. Then again… MTV? Granted, from what I know about Shannara it seems rather teen-friendly, and MTV has already dipped its toe into the supernatural with Teen Wolf. But… really?

Yes, really, says MTV President Susanne Daniels. And it’s gonna be good:

“We feel that the Shannara novels are a perfect fit for MTV as this type of fantasy genre has continuously proved to resonate with our audience.”

Well we’ll see, won’t we? You bring the swords, I’ll bring the sorcery.

(via: The Hollywood Reporter)

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