Spiderwick Chronicles - P 2012
Constantin Film, the company best known for the Resident Evil film franchise, has picked up movie rights to a new middle-grade fantasy series from powerhouse authors Cassandra Clare and Holly Black.
The move keeps Constantin in the kids book business and working with Clare as it is already adapting her best-selling series The Mortal Instruments. Black is the author of the popular children’s book series The Spiderwick Chronicles, which has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, been translated into 32 languages and adapted into a 2008 Paramount movie.
The first book in the new Clare-Black series is titled The Iron Trial. Scholastic pre-emptively acquired the North American publishing rights.
According to Constantin, the series “tells the story of 12-year-old Callum Hunt, who has grown up knowing three rules by heart: Never trust a magician, never pass a test a magician gives you, and never let a magician take you to the Magisterium. Callum is about to break all the rules. And when he does, his life will change in ways he can’t possibly imagine.”
In continuing the recent trend of authors writing first drafts of their adaptations, Clare and Black will pen the screenplay and serve as executive producers.
Constantin’s Robert Kulzer is producing.
The company is on the runway for an Aug. 15 start of production in Toronto on Mortal Instruments, which will be directed by Harald Zwart and star Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell-Bower.
