"The Neverending Story" Is Getting New Film Series Adaptation

“The Neverending Story” — the beloved fantasy novel from late German author Michael Ende that was famously adapted into the cult 1984 movie — is coming to the big screen once more.

Michael Ende Productions and See-Saw Films teamed up to bring the world of Fantastica back to cinemas over multiple live-action films.

Ende’s estate had been fielding interest from across the globe over the last few years, including from studios and streamers. The new joint-venture partnership has been granted “The Neverending Story” rights by Ende’s executor Dr. Wolf-Dieter von Granau. 

Iain Canning and Emile Sherman will produce for See-Saw alongside Roman Hocke and Ralph Gassmann for Michael Ende Productions. 

First published in 1979, “The Neverending Story” became a bestseller in Germany and was translated into 45 languages, selling millions of copies worldwide. 

At the center of the story is the awkward but imaginative child Bastian Balthasar Bux who, while escaping from his dull life and bullies at school, Bastain takes refuge in an old bookstore. 

There, he discovers the mysterious book “The Neverending Story,” about the heroic Atréyu and his mission to save the magical realm of Fantastica — a world of dragons, giants, vast kingdoms and deadly swamps — and its ruler, the Childlike Empress, from being destroyed by force known as “The Nothing.” 

The more he reads, the more Bastian finds himself drawn into the mythical world of Fantasia and realizes he’s not simply an uninvolved spectator and he soon finds himself transported into Fantastica himself, flying atop the luckdragon Falkor.

The next task for the partnership of See-Saw and Michael Ende Productions will be to find the right creative team to bring the novel to life before packaging the project and seeking out distribution partners.

While much of the details about the production — including the exact number of films to be made — will depend on the creatives assembled. but Canning said that the wildly colorful locations Ende described in “The Neverending Story” — including the so-called Ivory Tower, Goab the Desert of Colors, Silver Mountains, Spook City, Silver Lake and the Swamps of Sadness (where Atréyu’s horse Artax famously drowns) — lend the shoot to being an “international global production.” 

He added that they would also look to maintain a connection to the book’s heritage by shooting some scenes in Germany (much of the 1984 film was actually shot in the Bavaria Studios in Munich).

Alongside both Michael Ende Productions and See-Saw, executive producers on the new movies will include the L.A.-based former Endeavor Content exec Lorenzo De Maio and Ende’s executor von Gronau as well as See-Saw’s CEO Simon Gillis and creative director Helen Gregory. 

Gillis and De Maio will spearhead taking “The Neverending Story” back out to the market once packaged. The rights deal was negotiated by von Gronau on behalf of Michael Ende Productions and Gillis and attorney Stephen Saltzman of Fieldfisher, on behalf of See-Saw.