DMG Entertainment picked up film rights to the 'Islands' trilogy, which also will help launch a new Amazon initiative dedicated to promoting works with cross-media potential.


Screenwriter Chris Borrelli — whose credits include Vatican Tapes, Whisper and the graphic novel adaptation 100 Bullets, which is in development at New Line Cinema with Tom Hardy attached — has scored a publishing and film deal for The Islands, a new young adult trilogy. Amazon is publishing the books and DMG Entertainment has acquired with film rights, with an eye to launching a franchise.


The Islands follows 18-year-old Ginny, her boyfriend and her father as they sail the oceans after a nuclear Armageddon has destroyed the land and discover a fantastical set of islands.


The entire trilogy — Islands of Stone, Islands of Ghosts and Islands: Land’s End — launched last week on Amazon Kindle as the first books in a new initiative geared to publishing and promoting material with multimedia potential. Borrelli conceived of Islands as a multimedia property with possibilities in games, comics and other areas, as well as film and books.


DMG Entertainment preemptively acquired film and TV rights with the intention of developing it into a feature film or event series in partnership with a major studio, similar to its upcoming NBCUniversal cable series The Grace of Kings, based on the Ken Liu books, or The CW’s Dr. Mirage, based on the Valiant comic. DMG also has the forthcoming Universal comedy Blockers and was a producer on Iron Man 3 and Point Break.


Ian Kleinert of Objective Entertainment negotiated the publishing deal for Borrelli, with APA and attorney Jeff Frankel handling the film and TV rights.