EXCLUSIVE: Amazon has put in development Highfire, a TV series based on the adult thriller novel by bestselling Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer, with Nicolas Cage voicing the lead character and executive producing.
The book, described as True Detective by way of Pete’s Dragon, is being adapted for television by Davey Holmes, creator/executive producer of Epix’s Get Shorty TV series, based on the movie.
The genre-bending, live-action Highfire is a gritty crime-thriller with doses of magical realism. Its central character, Highfire (Cage) is a vodka-drinking, Flashdance-loving dragon who lives an isolated existence in the bayous of Louisiana.
MGM/UA Television is the studio. Holmes and Cage executive produce alongside Andrew Mittman of 1.21 via his exclusive production deal at MGM/UA TV.
Here are more details about Highfire: Once upon a time, dragons ruled the earth and Lord Highfire ruled the dragons from his eyrie. But this is not once upon a time, this is now, and now all Lord Highfire rules is his shack in Louisiana’s Honey Island Swamp. Highfire has become plain old ‘Vern’ and, by day, he hides out among the alligators, watches cable-TV and drinks obscene amounts of vodka to pass the time. It isn’t much of a life but he’s alive to live it, and Vern is prepared do whatever it takes – even if its violent – to preserve his own hide. When Vern’s world collides with a human teen named Squib, who becomes mixed up in some trouble while running booze for the local mob, their mutual struggle for survival becomes entangled in the most unlikely of friendships.
Cage also is attached to star in and executive produce a scripted series centered around Tiger King‘s Joe Exotic. His recent and upcoming work includes Mandy, Color Out of Space, Prisoners of the Ghostland, Pig, Croods 2, and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. He is repped by WME, Stride Management and Attorney Patrick Knapp of Goodman Genow.
Holmes, whose series credits also include Shameless, Awake and In Treatment, which earned him a WGA Award, is repped by Felker Toczek.
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