Emma Watson has successfully created an acting career past Hogwarts.  She's carefully moved forward with supporting roles in notable films such as My Week with Marilyn, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Bling Ring, a small part in This Is the End, and next year she's co-starring Darren Aronofsky's biblical epic, Noah.  But now it looks like she's ready to step into a lead role, and do it in a franchise of her own.  According to Variety, Watson will re-team with Harry Potter producer David Heyman for an adaptation of Erika Johansen's trilogy of fantasy books, Queen of the Tearling.

Hit the jump for more.

Variety reports that the book features a 19-year-old female protagonist, and "is set three centuries after an environmental catastrophe when a malevolent Red Queen holds considerable power."  Johansen was partly inspired by a 2007 speech from Barack Obama.  I guess I missed his "malevolent Red Queen" speech.  The books are reportedly a "female Game of Thrones", which is an odd description since Game of Thrones has plenty of interesting female characters.  Harper Collins will begin releasing the Queen of the Tearling books starting next year.

After seeing Watson's post-Potter work, I have no doubt she can anchor a franchise, and hopefully this is a good one.  The project hasn't attached a writer or a director yet, and since the books haven't even been released, don't expect this one to hit the fast track.  Instead, her first starring role could come from playing the female lead in Guillermo del Toro's Beauty and the Beast adaptation.