EDM Music Festival Tomorrowland Developing Fantasy Novel Series With Eye on Film/TV Adaptation (EXCLUSIVE)
Dance music festival Tomorrowland – dubbed the “Disneyland of music festivals” by the EDM world – is developing a fantasy novel series with the potential to become a film or TV franchise, Variety can exclusively reveal.
Brothers Manu and Michiel Beers created the festival, which features otherworldly visuals, artists and lighting, in Belgium in 2005. It has since been spun off across the globe, including versions in the U.S. and Brazil.
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The larger-than-life music festival, which saw Katy Perry headline a virtual iteration in 2020, is now using the IP it’s created to build out the Tomorrowland universe into a series of novels.
UTA’s Jason Richman is repping the book-to-screen rights while Paul Lucas of Janklow & Nesbit will oversee the books.
“Tomorrowland has introduced incredible themes, visuals and experiences to festival-goers across the globe,” said Richman. “I am thrilled to partner with them, build on its legacy with this new fantasy series, and bring it to the big screen.”
Lucas added: “Tomorrowland is recognised internationally for its worldbuilding and has managed to successfully knit that unique magic together with their core values of unity, hope, love, nature and health in an enchanting first novel of a trilogy. I believe the quality writing and themes of the series will captivate both fans of Tomorrowland, as well as finding a new audience in fantasy readers.”
Tomorrowland founder Michiel Beers said: “Every year Tomorrowland presents a new festival theme, which comes to life via a beautiful trailer, at the legendary Mainstage and throughout the festival grounds. As the stories and characters of each theme cannot be expressed fully during the festival, we have dreamt for years of taking more time to develop them. Three years ago we set up our fiction department, where with a passionate team, we bring to life the magical worlds and storylines of the Tomorrowland themes. We aim to build a legacy of storytelling and we look forward to sharing our stories with the world in the years to come.”
“We are excited to enter into a partnership with Paul Lucas and be adopted into his all-star lineup of talent,” Beers continued. “Paul shares our affection for great fantasy stories, so we can’t wait to take our first steps into publishing with him. We are delighted that Jason Richman will be taking the series’ book-to-screen rights under his wings as he is well-acquainted with the Tomorrowland DNA and an expert in his field at United Talent Agency. With the representation by Paul and Jason we believe our dream can become reality soon.”
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