‘The Alchemist’ film put on hold again – report

The movie adaptation of Paulo Coelho’s best-selling novel The Alchemist is being put on hold once again, according to a report by The Hollywood Reporter.

The film was initially slated for a 2022 theatrical release, with a September 2021 shooting set in Morocco. PalmStar Media had acquired the movie rights to the book since 2016 and would finance the film, along with founder and film director Kevin Frakes.

In July, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith announced that their company Westbrook Studios would be teaming up with Netter Films to produce the film, with a cast consisting of Sebastian de Souza, Tom Hollander, and Shohreh Aghdashloo. The film was already in preproduction.

However, according to The Hollywood Reporter, sources have said that financing for the film has hit a wall, causing the project to temporarily close down and their staff and crew to be sent home in the meantime. A production spokesperson for The Alchemist told THR that the film is still “fully financed” but is facing a “rights transfer issue” at the moment.

“There was a gap in an ordinary-course execution of the production rights transfer, and as a result, production entered a temporary shutdown. We expect to be back up and running with our incredible cast and crew as soon as the rights transfer concludes, and we can get everyone back on set,” the spokesperson said in an interview, expecting the project to hopefully return within weeks.

The film has been in the pipeline for decades now, with Warner Bros. acquiring the movie rights since the early 1990s. They transferred the rights to Coelho fan Laurence Fishburne, who was set to direct it, but he sold the rights to The Weinstein Co. in 2008. Fishburne would still be directing, with The Weinstein Co. producing.

In 2015, Idris Elba was reportedly joining Fishburne’s adaptation, but 2016 was when PalmStar acquired the rights and screenplay for $5 million.

“It has just come back around again,” Fishburne had told THR in 2018, adding the feature would come together “sooner rather than later.” Three years later, Fishburne was replaced by PalmStar’s Frakes as director and screenplay co-writer.

The Alchemist was published by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho in 1988. The Portuguese-language novel tells the story of a young Andalusian shepherd who embarks on a journey from his hometown in Spain to an Egyptian desert to find a buried treasure near the pyramids. During his adventure, he discovers life lessons, obstacles, interesting characters, and an inner wisdom gained by listening to one’s heart.

The novel, which sold over 100 million copies, holds the Guinness World Record for most translated work by a living author. – Rappler.com

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