By: Eric Eisenberg

Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are well-established in the science fiction genre, but now it would seem that they are turning their attention to fantasy. The writing duo – who have worked on projects ranging from the Star Trek reboot to this summer’s family drama People Like Us – is now attached to produce Dragonology, a film based on the series of books that began in 2003 with Dugald Steer’s Dragonology: The Complete Book of Dragons. The project is currently set up over at Universal.

THR says that the studio picked up the rights to the series in 2008 and had Leonard Hartman attached to both write the script, but now Hartman will simply serve as an executive producer while Kurtzman and Orci hunt for a new screenwriter (they will also be overseeing the draft of the new script). The story will follow a group of "dragonologists" who group together to try and prevent a villain from using the world’s remaining dragons to "wipe out humanity." In addition to the book series – which now stands at 12 titles – the franchise has also spun-off into other marketing areas, such as board games, toys and models.

Kurtzman and Orci signed a two-year, first look deal with Universal this past may and this project will fall under that deal. The pair is also currently working with the studio on rebooting their famed classic monster series by working on films about both Van Helsing and The Mummy. They are also currently writing the sequel to The Amazing Spider-Man and, along with Damon Lindelof, wrote the screenplay for J.J. Abrams’ upcoming Star Trek sequel, which is due out next summer.

Source: Cinema Blend