The next book in David Farland's Runelord series is entitled "Lair of Bones", with a release date predicted for Spring of 2003.

From TarrantWhats the REAL scoop on a movie deal?? And if there is indeed one in the works will it be a big budget deal or more like a made for T.V. movie with actors unknown?? Okay, the press release just came out today, and so I am no longer obligated to keep silent under my nondisclosure agreements.Here's the deal: I recently started my own movie production company, called Story Island Entertainment. It's something that I've wanted to do since I was a child. I'm working with two other companies: Entertainment Business Group and Ovation to create the first Runelords movie. The first step in the process is to write the script, sell the idea to global distributors, attach a director, attach the main stars, and set up the financing. For a major motion picture, this can cost two or three million dollars. We got the money to do this about nine months ago, and have been working diligently ever since.I began working with our writer, Terry Kahn, last June. Terry is a terrific writer, a scholar with a strong background in Milton and Shakespeare, and he's been doing a fantastic job of writing the screenplay. We have a first draft finished, and will begin working on the rewrite soon.We've also spoken with major distributors in the United States, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, Iceland, and a few other countries. We have selected distribution partners in most of those countries at this point.Now, the budget for the movie is estimated at about 60 million dollars. This might not sound like a big budget movie by today's standards, but because we are doing this as independent producers instead of a studio, we anticipate that we will make it go a long way. For example, I've been to China on two expeditions to do some initial location scouting and to check out the local film-making capabilities. In China, we would be able to make our 60 million dollar budget stetch a long way. Extras, costumes, sets, props, and in-camera special effects would be very inexpensive. But with the SARS epidemic, I doubt we'll be able to shoot there. Still, there are other interesting places we may shoot. For example, I was in Australia and Tasmania last week, and found some stunning country. I'll be going to New Zealand in a few weeks and scouting out the facilities there, too. I will most likely be looking closely into Eastern Europe and England.So, our goal is to do a big-budget movie. We want it to look at least as good as Lord of the Rings. We have tentatively attached John Nelson (who won an Academy Award for his visual design work on "Gladiator" and recently finished work on the two "Matrix" sequels.") I am also working closely with Grant Boucher, who has won an Academy Award for his special effects on "Titanic" and has also won various Emmy's and Cleo's. While Grant is an expert on in-camera effects solutions, Grant is an expert on photo-real digital effects. Between our experts, I feel sure that we will be able to create a movie that raises the bar on effects standards.

Certain works of fantasy are immediately recognizable as monuments, towering above the rest of the category. They have been written by the likes of Stephen R. Donaldson, Robert Jordan, and Terry Goodkind. Now add to that list David Farland, whose epic fantasy series began with The Runelords, continued in Brotherhood of the Wolf and the New York Times bestseller Wizardborn, and reaches its peak now in The Lair of Bones.Prince Gaborn, the Earth King, has defeated the forces arrayed against him each time before: the magical and human forces marshaled by Raj Ahten, who seeks immortality at any cost and has given up his humanity in trade; and the inhuman, innumerable, insectile hordes of the giant Reavers from under the Earth, whose motives are unknowable, but inimical to human life. Now there must be final confrontations, both on the field of battle, with the supernatural creature that Raj Ahten has become, and underground, in the cavernous homeland of the Reavers, where the sorcerous One True Master who rules them all lies in wait--in the Lair of Bones. The survival of the human race on Earth is at stake.Here's a blurb from the U.K. dust jacket:The stars fall from heaven & the very earth trembles in pain. With Gaborn's kingdom of Mystarria in ruins, four powerful kings march to claim their spoils, even as a vast army of reavers from the underworld sallies forth, intending to put an end to mankind. In one last-ditch effort to heal the earth, Averan leads the Earth King, Gaborn Val Orden, far below the surface to the Lair of Bones, to confront the leader of the reaver hordes.