Another Rumor: David Yates To Direct Fables?

A couple days after it was rumored that David Yates (director of the final four Harry Potter films) was Warner Bros top choice to direct The Hobbit films. It was later revealed that Yates was in fact one of a few directors that the studio had talked with about helming the abandoned two-film project, but they were still waiting to hear back from Peter Jackson. Now Pajiba is reporting a rumor that Yates is in talks to direct a big screen adaptation of the DC-owned Vertigo comic book series Fables.

Problem is, in 2008 it was announced that Fables would be coming to the small screen as a television series, with Six Degrees creators Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner writing the hour-long drama pilot teleplay and David Semel (Beverly Hills 90210, Buffy, Dawson's Creek, Roswell, Angel, House, Heroes, The Cleaner) hired to direct. Did ABC lose the rights to the small screen adaptation? Is a big screen adaptation in the works? Is Yates involved?

Created and written by Bill Willingham in 2002, the series has won fourteen Eisner Awards. Based in a world where fairy tale characters have been forced out of their homes by a mysterious enemy known as the Adversary, and now live in a hidden community in New York City known as Fabletown. I have yet to pick up Fables, but I'm a big fan of DC's Vertigo brand comics.  Eleven Volumes of the series have been released in trade paperback form (available for around $10 each on Amazon). The first volume description follows:

"Who Killed Rose Red? In fabletown, where fairy legends live along side regular New yorkers, the question is all anyone can talk about. But only the Big Bad Wolf can actually solve the case – and, along with Rose's sisterSnow White, keep the Fabletown community from coming apart at the seams."

When the adaptation was being developed into an ABC series, the show was going to be setup in a way that would allow any fairy tale character to show up for any given episode, with the main story revolving around Big Bad Wolf and Snow White. It sounds like that might have been the better way to take the series. Although, Yates has the experience of the Harry Potter films under his belt, which could make for a visually interesting cinematic adaptation.