The Spiderwick Chronicles come to the screen
February 12th 2007 08:15
Lately I've been speaking a fair bit about children's fantasy books being adapted for the screen. Well, it seems there's no shortage of film execs looking to jump on the Harry Potter bandwagon, and virtually every half-decent children's fantasy series is at some stage of movie development at a result. Last week I spoke about 'The Amulet of Samarkand' being developed for the screen, and mentioned other projects already arrived, on the cards and forthcoming sharpish ('His Dark Materials', 'Inkheart', 'The Spook's Apprentice', 'Eragon', 'Lemoney Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events', etc, etc). Well, it appears there is now another to add to that list, 'The Spiderwick Chronicles'.
The Spiderwick Chronicles are a series of five rather slender books aimed at younger readers, concerning a Field Guide to a whole menagerie of goblins, faeries and monster-ish creatures. As the books are rather short, the entire series will be condensed into a single film. Production is already a fair way along with many of the characters cast, and the film is scheduled for release in 2008.
Alongside the series is also a version of the Field Guide itself, a big hardcover book filled with many of the illustrations from the books, along with many other drawings, and I just gotta say - this guide is fantastic. I haven't read the Spiderwick Chronicles but the Field Guide itself features some astonishing artwork that shows some unique talent in terms of inspired design - giving us some great new takes on many mythological creatures from British and European folklore, and I hope this artwork is an integral part of the film's own creature-designs. If so, it will be well worth watching.
The film is to be directed by Mark Waters, director of 'Just Like Heaven' (yuck) and 'Mean Girls' (which was surprisingly good). The main children in the film (twin boys and their older sister) are being played by Sarah Bolger (who also appeared in 'In America' and the recent Alex Rider film, 'Stormbreaker') and Freddie Highmore (from 'Finding Neverland' and 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', he'll be playing both twins). Recent Oscar nominee David Straithern will be appearing as Arthur Spiderwick, the author of the field guide in question, and notable actors also lending their talents include Nick Nolte, Andrew McCarthy, Mary Louise Parker, Joan Plowright and Martin Short.
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