“The Alchemist” by Paolo Coelho is set to be adapted for the screen.
Legendary Entertainment has acquired the film, TV, and ancillary rights to the acclaimed book, PvNew has learned. The company will lead development of a film adaptation along with Sony’s TriStar Pictures and Palmstar, with TriStar set to distribute under their distribution partnership with Legendary.
Jack Thorne is attached to write the film. Thorne is known for writing films like both “Enola Holmes” Netflix features as well as “The Swimmers” and “The Aeronauts.” He also recently developed the series adaptation of “His Dark Materials” and wrote the critically-acclaimed miniseries “National Treasure.” In theater, he is known for writing “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” as well as “The Motive and the Cue.” He has won multiple BAFTAs and an Olivier and Tony Award.
He is repped by UTA, Sloane Offer and Casarotto Ramsay & Associates in the UK.
Per the official description, “The Alchemist” tells the story of Santiago, “a young man who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories can, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life’s path, and, above all, following our dreams.”
The book was originally published in 1988 in Portuguese. It became an international bestseller and is the most translated book worldwide by a living author.
This is not the first attempt to adapt “The Alchemist” for the screen. There have been various attempts over the years, most recently with Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook Studios set to produce. None of those attempts has ever been completed, however.
