Hulu is venturing into a Stephen King fairy tale.
The streaming service is developing a series based on King’s 1984 novel The Eyes of the Dragon, which is set in a medieval fantasy kingdom where a court magician is conspiring to manipulate the heirs to the throne.
King wrote the novel for his daughter Naomi, crafting an epic tale of wizardry and daring-do, focused on two boys who are next in line to rule the realm of Delain after the death of their dragon-slaying father.
The villain is a sorcerer named Flagg, implied to be the same demonic villain from King’s plague novel The Stand, who becomes a trusted court advisor but is secretly willing to kill his way to power.
Peter, the oldest son, is wise to Flagg’s machinations and witnesses some of his evil deeds through the looking-glass eyes of Niner — the dragon his father famously killed and installed in his palace as a decoration.
His younger brother, Thomas, is more easily swayed and quickly becomes the puppet of the unscrupulous Flagg.
The book later became woven into King’s broader The Dark Tower fantasy series, with the kingdom of Delain getting threaded into that larger story as it grew over the years.
The pilot is being written by Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter author and Lego Batman Movie screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith, who also produced the recent film adaptation of King’s It with his KatzSmith Productions partner David Katzenberg.
The two will be executive producers of The Eyes of the Dragon series with Bill Haber, Roy Lee, and Jon Berg, according to Deadline, which first broke the news.
“The goal for this series is to feel unlike any Stephen King adaptation before, with this rich underlying source material, and the only true fantasy book he wrote that has kings and swords and princesses,” Grahame-Smith told Deadline. “We will honor the spirit of the book and the legacy.”
Fox 21 is the studio making the project, and Hulu will build on its King legacy, having previously released the J.J. Abrams-produced adaptation of King’s JFK assassination time-travel thriller 11/22/63.
The Eyes of the Dragon is just the latest in a new wave of adaptations of King’s work, including the recent Pet Sematary, the upcoming It: Chapter Two, and in-the-works projects like The Stand, Salem’s Lot, The Tommyknockers, and Lisey’s Story, which King is adapting himself.
Related content:
The untold story of Pet Sematary‘s shrieking book cover
Take EW’s tour of the burial grounds in the new Pet Sematary
Stephen King Q&A: Uprooting the history of Pet Sematary