Katie Crocker - Associate Editor
Blockbuster producer Joe Roth (“Alice in Wonderland”, “Snow White & The Huntsman”) is bringing Laini Taylor’s young-adult fantasy novel ”Daughter of Smoke & Bone” to cinemas. Universal acquired the rights to the three books in Taylor’s novel series last year.
“The first installment of the trilogy, published in September 2011 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, tells the tale of a 17-year-old art student whose father occasionally sends her on errands around the world collecting human teeth for a mysterious purpose. The young woman gradually becomes aware that she is part of an ancient struggle between devils and angels and finds herself in a forbidden romance with a warrior angel.” (The Hollywood Reporter)
Robert Rugan will pen the script for “The Genius Files”, based on the kids book of the same name.
Gulfstream Pictures’ Mike Karz (”New Year’s Eve”) is producing the project, which is based on the book series by Dan Gutman about “12-year-old twins who are recruited to be part of a secret government experiment that uses young geniuses to solve complex national problems. The pair must fight for their lives while on a road trip with their family.”
Warner Bros, now stranger to bringing beloved novels to the big screen, having produced the “Harry Potter” series, are in charge. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Comic book scribe and musician Gerard Way has offered an update on Dark Horse’s film version of “The Umbrella Academy”.
“I’d say it’s hanging out a little bit. Every once in awhile there’s a burst of movement and it’s kind of how I’ve noticed Hollywood works. There’s a burst of movement and then a burst of nothing. We actually recently got a script and it’s really great, so I think it’s just a matter of waiting for [Universal Studios] wanting to take the risk on it.”
Apparently the film will have a slightly less bigger budget than originally planned.
“Well the good news is that it’s not as big as it was before, which actually takes a lot of the pressure off the storytelling in the script and made it so things could exist like Space[boy] still being half a Martian gorilla, Bobo still being a chimp – you know what I mean? Those are things that, when your budget starts to get higher and higher you notice that discussions will start to happen like, “Well, let’s maybe phase some of this weird stuff out.” So, your budget getting smaller is sometimes the best thing that can happen.” (Comics Alliance)
