Chinese film company Alibaba Pictures Group has reached an agreement with the UK-based fiction packager Working Partners to secure the film rights for the bestselling Warriors children’s book series. Alibaba Pictures plans to turn Warriors into a film franchise.

The series has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. Warriors follows four clans of warring feral cats and is written by Erin Hunter, also known as the writing team of Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry and Victoria Holmes.

The first book was published by HarperCollins in the US in 2003 and the series is currently licensed in 35 languages around the world. Online, there are more than 70 million views of Warriors-based user generated content on YouTube.

HarperCollins will publish eight new Warrior titles over the next two years.

Working Partners has created over 100 novel series in more than 40 languages, including Warriors, Rainbow Magicand Beast Quest. Working Partners’ parent company Coolabi recently branched into licensing for the Beast Quest series and signed a co-development agreement with Zodiak Kids Studios for the CGI animated spinoff TV series Sea Quest. The 26 x 22-minute show is aimed at kids six to 11.

Alibaba Pictures has invested in international film projects including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Star Trek Beyond and Mission Impossible–Rogue Nation.