‘The Alpha Wolves of Yellowstone’: Stampede Ventures Taps Zack Stentz, Will Stenberg To Script Film Based On Non-Fiction Book Series
21.11.2023 - 17:03
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: Stampede Ventures has optioned rights to the first three books in the bestselling non-fiction series The Alpha Wolves of Yellowstone, tapping Zack Stentz (Thor) and his wolf advocate brother Will Stenberg to script a film adaptation.
Published by Greystone Books, the books hail from retired National Park ranger Rick McIntyre. Stentz and Geoff Clark will co-produce through their production company Electric Brain Entertainment, with McIntyre to consult on the project.
Over the course of his four decades observing wolves in the wild, including 28 in Yellowstone National Park, McIntyre has recorded over 100,000 wolf sightings, more than any other person on the planet. A renowned wolf behaviorist, he was one of the first park rangers to work on the Yellowstone Wolf Reintroduction Project and educate the public about the park’s wolves.
In his books The Rise of Wolf 8, The Reign of Wolf 21, and The Redemption of Wolf 302, McIntyre brings readers into the wilds of Yellowstone, providing intimate and gripping portraits of three remarkable alpha wolves and their packs across several generations. McIntyre was recently featured on the popular NPR radio program and podcast This American Life, where he discussed the famous Wolf 8 and his own life and career in Yellowstone.
In a statement to Deadline, McIntyre explained that Yellowstone’s Wolf 8 “was bullied when young but grew up to be one of our greatest alpha males.” He later adopted “fatherless pup” Wolf 21, who developed a “long term relationship with female alpha wolf 42,” seeing his story shift in the end to the “quest” he goes on when he loses her. “21’s nephew, wolf 302, continually messed things up for himself, but late in life became a great hero,” McIntyre