Mike Fleming

The Traveler Warner Bros Fourth Realm TrilogyEXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros has optioned film rights to the Fourth Realm Trilogy, a bestselling series by dystopian novelist John Twelve Hawks. The studio will start right away on The Traveler, the first book in the series. The novels are set in the near future, and reinterpret history as a battle between the forces of control. There is the Tabula, which manages society through constant observation, and the Travelers, a nearly extinct group of people who can project their spirit into other dimensions. The series continued with the novels The Dark River and The Golden City. They’ve been published in 25 languages and sold more than 1.5 million books.

“I’m so pleased that the trilogy is at Warner Bros, a studio whose history of otherworldly storytelling is so indelible and whose vision for the Fourth Realm Trilogy is so inspiring,” the author said in a statement.

The author is himself an interesting story. His books are bestsellers but he has maintained such a lower profile that his life and identity are mysteries, including his real name. How does he communicate? By email or by untraceable satellite calls for which he uses a voice scrambler. He’s known to his fans as J12H and JX11H. He’s done few interviews and prefers to live off the grid. His deal was made by UTA and  Joe Regal of Regal Literary.