More fighting for “NeverEnding Story” rights? – newsdubai

Several studios and streaming services are reportedly chasing screen rights to German author Michael Ende’s beloved 1979 book “The NeverEnding Story.”

According to Deadline, there are several interested parties and several multi-million dollar offers currently out there for what could be the next big fantasy screen property.

The story follows a ten-year-old boy named Bastian who stumbles across a magical book that tells the story of a young warrior named Atreyu who is tasked with stopping the Nothing – a dark force that is engulfing Fantasia’s wonderland.

The first half of the book was famously translated into a film in 1984 by filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen, which became a huge hit. A lower-budget sequel in 1990 adapted elements from the second half with an entirely original story that became a third film.

The property has also been adapted for the stage and an animated series, but legal rights over the property have made further adaptations a complicated proposition for years.

Source: Deadline