Merrick here…

Variety reports that Warner Bros. and Initial Entertainment are adapting Kit Whitfield’s novel BENIGHTED (published as BAREBACK in the UK). The film will be produced by Andrew Adamson, who may also direct.

Adamson co-directed the first two SHREK movies, and recently helmed THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE. He’s currently gearing up for its sequel, PRINCE CASPIAN.

The book is set in an alternate reality, in which 90% of the world’s populous are Werewolves. On the full moon, most of the world morphs into lycanthropes that are beyond reason or control. The small percentage left unable to change…called “barebacks”…find themselves victimized, oppressed, and more. The story tracks Lola, a non-werewolf who works for the Department for the Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activity, as she investigates a conspiracy/mystery which takes the audience deeper into the werewolf’s world.

Personally, I loved how Adamson handled the first half of WARDROBE, and found much of that film’s “real world” material far more intriguing and magical than fantasyland (after the initial encounter with “The Faun”, the whole shebang kind of went South for me). This probably isn’t a widely shared…or particularly popular…sentiment…but…(shrugs). In my mind, if Adamson can bring the magic evident in the first half of WARDROBE to this project, it could be something pretty amazing. All right, so go ahead and hate me.

This being said, visions of UNDERWORLD are dancing in my head. I don’t like them and I wish they’d go the hell away.