As the studio starts to run out of Harry Potter books to adapt, Warner Brothers has two options. One, hold JK Rowling’s favourite scarf to ransom until she writes more Potters. Or two, buy up the rights to an unpublished child adventure novel.
Realising that Rowling could buy a scarf factory, let alone just a new scarf, the company has sensibly decided to grab the rights to Philip Reeve’s new novel Larklight.
The book is a Victorian-age adventure with a twist – our hero is Art, who lives in the titular house with his sister Myrtle and their father, Marmaduke Mumsby. But that’s where the historical accuracy ends. You see, the house is in orbit (think Zathura but with more mutton-chop sideburns) and the kids are whisked off on a quest to save the world from evil.
There’s no director or writer attached yet, but Denise Di Novi – still trying to forget the fact that she produced Catwoman – will guide the concept on its journey through the mists of Development Hell.