A new attempt to bring The Alchemist to the big screen is officially underway.
IGN has confirmed that the novel by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho is being adapted into a new movie by Legendary Entertainment, who have acquired the rights to the critically acclaimed book.
Although there’s no director on board just yet, Enole Holmes scribe Jack Thorne is penning the script. He also recently developed the His Dark Materials TV adaptation which stars Dafne Keen and Ruth Wilson.
The Alchemist tells the story of Santiago – a young, Andalusian shepherd who journeys to the pyramids of Egypt after a dream tells him of great treasures to be found there.
The Alchemist was first published in 1988 and went on to become a best seller.
Of course, this isn’t the first time it’s been up for an adaptation, either. A comic book adaptation was published by Alexandre Jubran in 1994, while a theater version of The Alchemist was produced in 2002 and performed in London.
Will Smith previously acquired the film rights for The Alchemist, but the project seemingly fell by the wayside, THR reported back in 2021. But with Legendary scooping up the rights, it seems like the long-anticipated adaptation has been brought back to life.
Legendary Entertainment will lead the development of this adaptation alongside Sony’s TriStar Pictures and Palmstar, with TriStar set to distribute.
Want to read more about upcoming adaptations? Check out why it’s okay for movie adaptations to break away from the source and find out which is the highest-grossing video game adaptation ever.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
