EXCLUSIVE: Fox has preemptively bought Magicians, a drama series adaptation of Lev Grossman’s popular fantasy novel, with a script commitment plus penalty. It will be written by X-Men: First Class and Thor co-writers Ashley Miller & Zack Stentz and produced by Michael London (Milk), Shawn Levy and Michael Adelstein. Based on Grossman’s book, which is described as Harry Potter for grown-ups, the one-hour drama follows a group of 20-somethings in New York 
who study magic and have access to a magical world. London had optioned the novel, which was published in 2009, while 21 Laps/Adelstein had a deal with Miller and Stentz, who have extensive TV background having worked on such series as Fringe and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. All joined forces on the series project, which will be executive produced by Miller, Stentz, London, Levy, Adelstein and Becky Clements. Following the success of The Magicians, Grossman wrote a sequel, The Magician King, which was published in August.
Contemporary dramas with fairytale elements are hot for a second consecutive broadcast development season. 
The previous one yielded 2 new series in the genre, ABC’s Once Upon a Time and NBC’s Grimm. This time around, Magicians joins a project from Michael Green, which recently landed a put pilot commitment at ABC. It centers on a female cop who discovers a magical world that exists within New York City.
21 Laps/Adelstein, which has the Tim Allen ABC comedy Last Man Standing launching next week, has already sold a slew of projects this season, including a Romancing the Stone adaptation penned by Mark Friedman to NBC, a medical dramedy written by Jessica Queller, ensemble comedy Gorilla Time penned by Stacy Traub & Hayes Jackson, CIA drama by Karyn Usher and family comedy Threepete written by Carter Covington — all to Fox. Additionally, the company recently received a cast-contingent pilot pickup at Fox for multi-camera comedy Little Brother penned by Mike Royce. London is with CAA, while WME reps 21 Laps/Adelstein and Miller & Stentz who are managed by Principato-Young.
You mean Marty Adelstein, Shawn’s partner.
My opinion is that they will borrow the title and the character names only from the book.
“The Magicians” is one of those compulsively readable books that you end up devouring in a weekend. There is a LOT going on in one book that could easily sustain a couple of seasons of a TV show, although they would obviously have to flesh out a lot that went unspoken or unmentioned in the novel. “The Magicians” feels like three novels crammed into one, so it’s naturally suited for a TV show. It has a harder edge to it, too.
How did Adelstein get so lucky in the TV producing world?
This guy needs to be teaching a master class at USC.
Former agent, man. Everybody knows once you survive that club, it pays dividends.
With all these projects in the works, I wonder if he’ll still charge people to fly on his “private jet”?
FIRsT ClASS had an embarrassingly bad script. No interest in anything these robots write.
I could not disagree more. ‘First Class’ had more character, emotion and heart that every other ‘superhero’ movie that came out this year combined. This could potentially become the mega-hit that FOX desperatly needs after the ‘average’ reception from “Terra Nova”.
Go ZackAsh!
I was wondering who and when they would put out a harry potteresk series; The book sounds interesting so I may have to give it a try; The series shoule do well becuase of all those harry pottter fans now growing up; mostwould be in the late teens to thier twenties by now. A good money maker.
Ack. First Class was way overrated and had a terrible script. Thor only worked because of Branagh. I have a feeling that this is only a blip on the Fox lineup (if it even makes it that far).
Nonsense. Do you know these guys at all?? Or the book? It’s very adaptable
I will be interested to see what Breakbill will be like. I see merchandising on the horizon. I don’t know if the Breakbills uniform will be as popular as the Harry Potter robes.
Congrats to Lev Grossman!!!!
Who will rewrite?
The book Magicians was one of the worst books ever written. As it was pointed out in another comment, all Ash and Zack will probably be able to keep is the title and the main character’s name… the rest has to be scraped!
If they don’t, I’m sure the Estate and Publishers of C.S. Lewis’ works will have them in court real fast.
I really enjoyed the books a lot, and am looking forward to seeing them on tv. I’m a bit skeptical of their choice for writers, though.
If they give Wil Wheaton a part, I’ll watch it.
If they give Felicia Day AND WIl Wheaton parts? I will never miss an episode.
Yes! Thank you! How does such garbage slip through?
I loved the book, but part of me says why bother if Fox ends up doing their usual routine of “Oh, hey! This show could do extremely well if we give it a chance! Too bad we’re not going to! *cancels it after first season*.”
Don’t get me wrong, I want to see the show be successful. But when we remind ourselves of “Firefly” and what Fox did with that, I can’t help but believe Fox will end up destroying something people love again by cancelling it prematurely.
This is super exciting and I’m glad they decided to go the “Game of Thrones” route with a TV show instead of a movie since there’s just too much in the book. I have no idea how they’ll produce it since it’s not exactly conducive to a typical show (too many sets, not enough “central” characters, and it takes place over 5 years), but I’m glad Fox is willing to try. On the other hand, Fox has a track record of producing great shows and then canceling them just as they get their footing, so I’d rather see this under another network’s umbrella, but at least it’s getting made. Maybe we’ll even get Julia’s backstory from the sequel (which happens to run parallel to the timeline of the first book).
The Magicians is my absolute favorite book, and the sequel Magician King is right behind. Would love to watch this show! Wish it was HBO rather than Fox, but I’ll take what I can get :-)
The Magicians and The Magician King were the best books I’ve read this year period! I hope these guys do justice to the world Lev Grossman as created. Looking forward to the next book in the series.