Copyright Deadline
EXCLUSIVE: Australia‘s Pixel Zoo Animation Studios is developing a teen and family movie based on graphic novel Neverlanders. Rights to the book, which is from author Tom Taylor and illustrator Jon Sommariva, have been acquired, and Pixel Zoo’s original content division, Pixel Labs, will handle the adaptation. Taylor will pen the script and Sommariva will be art director, with Pixel Zoo’s Head of Studio, Sebastian Gonzalez, the executive producer. Neverlanders is billed as a “gritty YA graphic novel set in a reimagined world of Peter Pan,” where the “beloved, action-packed tale finds Neverland has become a war zone, and it’s up to a new group of lost ones to save the day.” The book, which is from Australia, follows Bee and her fellow runaways, who discover a new friend, Paco, is a Lost Boy from Neverland who needs them to fight hordes of pirates led by a merciless new leader. A foul-mouthed Tinker Bell, who leads a fairy army struggling to keep the pirates at bay, spirits the runaways to Neverland, to win the war. Penguin Random House published the novel in 2022, and it was named the 2023 Book of the Year for Older Readers by Children’s Book Council of Australia and received France’s Prize des Collegiens de la Somme Award at the 2025 Rendez-Vous de la Bande Dessinée d’Amiens comics festival. It’s currently available in the U.S., Australia, France, Spain and Norway, and a sequel, Neverlanders: Get Lost, is set to be published in summer of 2026. Author and screenwriter Taylor is also known for his work on the Eisner-winning Nightwing, Detective Comics, Superman: Son of Kal-El, Suicide Squad and Injustice Gods Among Us as well as being the architect of DC’s DCeased and Dark Knights of Steel universes. His work for Marvel includes Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Wolverine, X-Men and Iron Man and he has written multiple Star Wars series, and he is the co-creator of C.O.R.T. – Children of the Round Table for DC Comics and Seven Secrets. Elsewhere, he is the head writer and exec producer on the ABC’s animated series The Deep, which is based on the comic book of the same name that he created. Sommariva has worked for publishers including DC Comics, Marvel, Image, IDW, UDON and Darkhorse., illustrating the likes of Rexodus, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Amazing Adventures, Batman/TMNT Adventures, Star Wars Adventures, Marvel Action: Avengers, DCeased and Harley Quinn. He also co-created Image Comics’ Gemini and recently worked on Multiversus: Collision Detected for DC Comics. “Pixel Zoo’s passion for our story, our world, and our characters is undeniable and made them the natural choice to bring Neverlanders to the screen,” they said in a statement. “We’re excited to collaborate with Sebastian and the entire Pixel Zoo team and use our collective pixie dust to deliver an animated film that will delight fans around the world.” Pixel Zoo is a Brisbane-based animation studio that’s part of MGA Studios. It has worked with the likes of Hasbro, MGA Entertainment, Spin Master, eOne and Moonbug Entertainment, and is developing originals through Pixel Labs. “It has always been important for Pixel Zoo to champion talent, original stories and world class animation in Australia, so we are thrilled to partner with the brilliant Tom Taylor and Jon Sommariva,” said Gonzalez. Our team will work closely with Tom and Jon to ensure we stay true to the soul of Neverlanders while expanding the graphic novel into the kind of cinematic adventure only animation can deliver.” Taylor and Sommariva were represented in the deal by Stephen Moore at Paul Kohner, Inc. on behalf of Adams Literary.
