Vera Miao Boards ‘The Lighthouse Witches’ Series Adaptation As Showrunner; Project Comes From The Picture Company & Studiocanal:

EXCLUSIVE: The series adaptation of C.J. Cooke’s supernatural family novel The Lighthouse Witches has moved a step closer to fruition after Two Sentence Horror Stories creator Vera Miao boarded the project.

Miao, who created The CW drama series, which ran for three seasons, will create and serve as showrunner on the series, which comes from The Picture Company and Studiocanal.

It is the latest television project for The Picture Company, which is behind feature films including Gunpowder Milkshake and Sam Taylor-Johnson’s A Million Little Pieces. The company is also working with Studiocanal and Entertainment 360 on a scripted series adaptation of art documentary The Lost Leonardo.

Published in 2021 by Penguin Random House, the book follows young mother Liv and her three daughters who arrive on a mysterious Scottish island to run a decrepit lighthouse.

When single mother Liv is commissioned to paint a mural in a 100-year-old lighthouse on a remote Scottish island, it’s an opportunity to start over with her three daughters–Luna, Sapphire, and Clover. When two of her daughters go missing, she’s frantic. She learns that the cave beneath the lighthouse was once a prison for women accused of witchcraft. The locals warn her about wildlings, supernatural beings who mimic human children, created by witches for revenge. Liv is told wildlings are dangerous and must be killed.

Twenty-two years later, Luna has been searching for her missing sisters and mother. When she receives a call about her youngest sister, Clover, she’s initially ecstatic. Clover is the sister she remembers–except she’s still seven years old, the age she was when she vanished. Luna is worried Clover is a wildling. Luna has few memories of her time on the island, but she’ll have to return to find the truth of what happened to her family. But she doesn’t realize just how much the truth will change her.

The series will blend genre elements with a supernatural family drama spanning multiple generations.

The Picture Company co-founders Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman will executive produce the series with Studiocanal’s Ron Halpern and Shana Eddy overseeing the production for the studio.

In addition to Two Sentence Horror Stories, Miao is behind feature film Best Friends Forever, which premiered at Slamdance, and she has written on series including AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead and is a supervising producer on Amazon’s upcoming Expats from Nicole Kidman and Lulu Wang.

Miao is repped by Circle of Confusion and CAA.

View this article at Deadline.