Los Angeles, California (October 31, 2008) – Peter Jackson, the Academy Award-winning director of the Lord of the Rings films and the forthcoming The Lovely Bones announced today that his company, Wingnut Films, has reached an agreement to option Empire of Ivory and Victory of Eagles, the two newest novels in Naomi Novik’s best-selling Temeraire series. Previously, Wingnut optioned the first three books in the series. The Temeraire saga reimagines the world of the Napoleonic Wars with an air force of dragons and valiant aviators, adding a new dimension to the epic battles of the era. The first book in the series, His Majesty’s Dragon, was nominated for the Hugo Award and won the Compton Crook Award, and in 2007 Naomi Novik won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, the same year Empire of Ivory debuted on the New York Times best-seller list.