AceShowbiz -

Two ambitious film projects are on the line to get brewed at Warner Bros. Pictures. The giant studio has successfully obtained rights to make both "The Elfstones of Shannara" and "Thundercats" under its banner, Variety has reported.

The former, set to follow the massive success of the company's "Harry Potter" franchise, will be a big screen adaptation of the second part of the best-selling "Shannara" series by Terry Brooks, known to be the second biggest-selling living fantasy book writer after J.K. Rowling.

Set 1,000 years in the future, "Shannara" series takes place in a world populated by elves, trolls, gnomes, and dwarves in a post-apocalyptic Earth, depicting the Shannara family as half-Elf, half-man clan with magical abilities and warrior skills who must save the world. It has never been optioned for the big screen because the author has firmly kept the work away from getting such treatment.

As for the latter one, it will be made based on the popular 1980s animated series that centered on a group of humanoid cats protecting future leader Lion-O who crash their plane on a planet named Third Earth after the destruction of their home-planet Thundera. Warner reportedly is going to develop the project as a live-action feature from script by new scribe Paul Sopocy with Paula Weinstein, Dick Robertson, and Lew Korman all producing.

It is learned that Sopocy's screenplay presents an origin story expanding on the major heroes and villains from the original, putting focus on Lion-O's coming of age as the leader of the Thundercats.

UPDATE 06/11/2007: Warner Bros. has clarified that "Thundercats" will be made as an animated feature instead.