Leslie Anne Lee

In a realm divided by an ancient and brutal war between elves and vampires, two outcasts—Anda, a young woman of forbidden human and elven blood, and Dagsbrún, the immortal offspring of elf and vampire—are drawn together by a destiny neither understands. As old hatreds threaten to consume the Vale, they must decide whether to remain defined by the bloodlines that rejected them or risk everything to become the unlikely bridge between two worlds.

At its heart, Child of Dawn is a story about two people who belong nowhere finding belonging in one another while the world around them insists they should be enemies. Its unique hook is that the central romance does more than exist against the backdrop of an epic fantasy conflict: Anda and Dagsbrún physically embody the divisions at the center of that conflict. Their very existence challenges the laws, prejudices, and mythology upon which the Vale has built centuries of hatred.

Child of Dawn is aimed primarily at young adult through adult audiences, particularly women ages 18–45, while retaining strong crossover appeal for traditional epic-fantasy viewers. It is designed for audiences who want immersive world-building and cinematic spectacle but who are equally invested in character, forbidden love, yearning, identity, sacrifice, and morally complicated relationships.

Strong comparable titles include The Lord of the Rings for its scope and mythology, The Witcher for its darker fantasy atmosphere and morally complex characters, Outlander for its emotionally intense central romance, and Shadow and Bone for its mix of fantasy mythology, romantic tension, and a younger crossover audience.

Tonally, Child of Dawn sits between sweeping traditional fantasy and the increasingly popular character-driven fantasy romance: an epic world where the emotional stakes matter as much as the battles.

Child of Dawn grew out of my fascination with the people who exist between worlds—the ones who have been told they are too different, too complicated, or too unacceptable to truly belong anywhere. Beneath the magic, immortal creatures, ancient wars, and mythology, this is ultimately a story about prejudice, identity, forgiveness, sacrifice, and the extraordinary courage required to love someone the world has taught you to hate.

The fantasy elements give those ideas scale, but the emotional core is deeply human. Anda and Dagsbrún are both products of forbidden unions and inherited conflict. Each has spent a lifetime carrying the consequences of decisions made long before they were born. Their journey asks whether hatred must inevitably be inherited—or whether someone can finally choose to end it.

That question feels especially relevant now. Audiences have demonstrated an enormous appetite for fantasy stories built around powerful emotional relationships, complicated heroes, immersive mythology, and romance with genuine narrative consequences. Child of Dawn offers those elements within an established world that can expand well beyond a single feature.

It is not simply a fantasy love story. It is a story about what happens when two people who were never supposed to exist become the ones who can change the world.

Child of Dawn is a completed feature screenplay adapted from my novel and has already received multiple screenplay awards and international festival selections.

My primary goal at this stage is to find the right producing partner for an option or acquisition of the screenplay, with someone who understands both the emotional heart of the story and its potential as a visually ambitious fantasy property.

I am particularly interested in conversations regarding:

• A screenplay option or purchase
• An experienced producer or production company attachment
• A shopping agreement with a producer capable of taking the project to appropriate financiers, studios, or streamers
• Development and production financing
• Strategic creative partnerships for developing the larger Legends of the Vale world
• Literary or management representation with experience in fantasy, adaptation, and franchise-oriented material

I would like to mention that, whatever the agreement, I would like to remain involved in the project to some extent on the creative side.

Because Child of Dawn originates from a larger literary universe, the project also carries significant expansion potential. The screenplay can stand alone as a feature while introducing a world, mythology, history, and characters that can support additional films or serialized adaptations. The series includes four books, and a prequel series is currently being written.

I am looking for a partner who doesn't just want to produce a fantasy film, but who sees the possibility of building a world around it.