Yahoo! News reports that The Weinstein Company has acquired the rights to The Alchemist, an international bestselling novel writen by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. The big screen adaptation will be directed by and feature Lawrence Fishburne.
The Alchemist, originally published in 1988, is the story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who, after a dream, sells his flock to seek treasure in Egypt. The novel, which has sold more than 30 million copies, deals in themes of personal determination and self discovery and has been hailed as a “celebration of the human spirit”.
The Oscar award winning Weinstein, who to date has more than 200 movies and TV shows to his credit, has spent years trying to get the bestselling novel to screen. Weinstein will personally oversee production of The Alchemist. “Personally producing a project is rare for me, but bringing The Alchemist to the screen has been my dream,” he said. “It is a spiritual and moving story and I am thrilled to be working side by side with Laurence. The pieces are now in place to jumpstart this project and we are eager to get going.” Weinstein said in a May 18th article for Rotten Tomatoes. The last movie to have Weinstein’s personal supervision was the Academy Award winning “Shakespeare In Love” which took the award for Best Picture in 1999.
Oscar nominated Fishburne, who will be playing the title character, spoke in a video message and relayed his pleasure at being offered the project calling it “a dream come true.”
The actor playing Santiago has yet to be named and production dates have yet to be announced.
Sources:
Publishers Weekly
Amazon.com
Yahoo! News
Rotten Tomatoes
Wikipedia
School Library Journal
