It's not very often that the story within the pages of an author's book is as compelling as the story of the author itself. That seems to be the case with John Twelve Hawk's "Fourth Realm trilogy," a best-sellling dystopian series which was recently optioned by Warner Bros. While dystopian has been a hot genre for a while now (especially with The Hunger Games opening so big already this weekend) the studio is looking to get a quick start on The Traveler, the first book in the trilogy. The near-future novels tell of a shadowy, "big brother" organization known as the Brethren (or the Tabula), which seeks to achieve total societal control through monitoring and surveillance technology. The Travelers, people who have the ability to leave their physical body and travel to other realms, are the other half of an on-going power struggle.

Just as interesting, or perhaps more so to some, is the reclusive nature of the author, who uses a Satellite phone and a voice scrambler to communicate with his editor and agent. Hit the jump for more on Hawks and his Fourth Realm trilogy.

News of Warner Bros acquisition of the feature rights to Hawks' Fourth Realm trilogy comes via Deadline. While Hawks prefers to live off the grid, he has done a few interviews and also released a statement in response to the development of The Traveler:

“I’m so pleased that the trilogy is at Warner Bros, a studio whose history of otherworldly storytelling is so indelible and whose vision for the Fourth Realm Trilogy is so inspiring."

Check out the synopsis for The Traveler, the first book in the Fourth Realm trilogy (via Amazon):

In London, Maya, a young woman trained to fight by her powerful father, uses the latest technology to elude detection when walking past the thousands of surveillance cameras that watch the city. In New York, a secret shadow organization uses a victim’s own GPS to hunt him down and kill him. In Los Angeles, Gabriel, a motorcycle messenger with a haunted past, takes pains to live "off the grid" — free of credit cards and government IDs. Welcome to the world of The Traveler — a world frighteningly like our own.In this compelling novel, Maya fights to save Gabriel, the only man who can stand against the forces that attempt to monitor and control society. From the back streets of Prague to the skyscrapers of Manhattan, The Traveler portrays an epic struggle between tyranny and freedom. Not since 1984 have readers witnessed a Big Brother so terrifying in its implications and in a story that so closely reflects our lives.