Jason Eric Perlman

Writer / Director / Producer

Based in fact: In turn of the 20th Century London, future Nobel Prize-winning writer William Butler Yeats seeks power and inspiration from a dark spiritual sect that also includes famous authors Bram Stoker and Arthur Conan Doyle. As their careers in the familiar world are advanced by forays into the mystical, their internal power struggles lead to events that trigger World War One.

Why we love this

Historical fantasy has a unique appeal, tapping into the intriguing (and sometimes scary) mystical heart of the past. Dark Luminaries is historical fantasy at its best: taking figures we know well, and the elusive secret society that united them, and combining them with a rich mythology and globally high stakes plot.

Jason has brought his creativity and tenacity to projects in the US, but this London-set series is his magnum opus.

Synopsis | About Jason Eric Perlman | Contact

Long before his Nobel Prize in literature, William Butler Yeats is a struggling young writer lost in the shuffle of 1888 London. Yeats spins his creative wheels and grows demoralized as the horrific Jack the Ripper murders grip London. But when Yeats meets the beguiling Florence Farr, a gifted clairvoyant who has psychically witnessed the Ripper’s murders, Yeats’ destiny is eternally altered… Florence Farr is a theater actress on the rise and the muse of rival playwright George Bernard Shaw. But Yeats can’t resist courting her when he realizes she’s also a member of a secret occult sect that has trained her psychic vision: the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Desperate for renewed inspiration, and with his fear and curiosity equally piqued, Yeats convinces Farr to introduce him to her magical Order.

Headed by the enigmatic and imperial MacGregor Mathers, the Golden Dawn initially embraces Yeats. Fellow fledgling writers Bram Stoker and Arthur Conan Doyle are also initiates seeking tutelage for their yet-unrealized masterpieces. Proving a natural adept and gifted clairvoyant, Yeats quickly rises through the magical grades. But nearing the peak of his powers in the mystical realms just as his writing is also finding its voice, Yeats encounters a new obstacle as old as humanity… Not the gallery of astral demons and ghostly spirits that he confronts, but instead—the human ego.

MacGregor Mathers is a man hellbent on control and worldly power derived from the spirit realms. When Mathers indoctrinates the fearsome dark magician Aleister Crowley into the Golden Dawn, the fissures within the Order begin to violently expand. Mathers has been in league with some very dangerous demons, the most prominent being the German cipher Otto Kannehdren. He’s intent on fusing the diffuse occult groups of the world into a single centralized braintrust on the astral plane. But as Yeats startlingly discovers, the true purpose of this alliance is to pave the way for WWI so the great human wars can crown a master race. Now Yeats and his loyalists must battle for the Soul of a Century.

Named #4 in LA Weekly’s “Top Entertainment Professionals to Watch in 2023,” Jason has been working professionally in the Hollywood film industry since earning his Masters from USC cinematic arts in Los Angeles, 2004. Jason is a working WGA feature and television screenwriter as well as a two-time feature film director. He most recently directed the 6mil feature sci-fi thriller Site from his own award-winning screenplay. The film is currently in sales and attracted a noteworthy cast. His previously produced thriller also as writer and director was Threshold, distributed by Archstone Pictures in conjunction with Sony in 2019.

Jason's own film production corporation, Entelekey Media, is currently moving forward with its next feature film project that Jason also wrote. This film is substantially larger in scale and scope with a $20 million budget and being shepherded by Jason and Oscar-nominated producer, Judi Levine. Director Michael Rymer (Hannibal, Man in the High Castle) is attached to helm the production in Australia, mid-2025.

Not limited to film writing, Jason has also found success in television. The past year found him adapting an award-winning non-fiction book into a series. The show was originally developed with Warner Bros. with a deal inked in 2021. Not Jason's first foray into TV, he has also sold scripted television material in the past, most notably with Oscar-nominated producer Alexandra Milchan (Tár, The Wolf of Wall Street).

Dark Luminaries is the project Jason is most proud of and excited to see produced. He considers it his 'desert island story,' the one he would commit to at the exclusion of all others.

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