Aware that the Harry Potter franchise is soon to disappear in a puff of smoke, Warner Bros have announced David Frankel (Marley & Me) as the director for the first of a new series of wand-wavers, Septimus Heap: Magyk - though unlike Ron, this one's going to be animated.
The titular Septimus is the seventh son of a seventh son (as Latin fans might already have guessed) which automatically makes him a big ol' wizard. But he's spirited away as a newborn, while his parents raise an abandoned baby who is the lost daughter of a dead queen, leading to complications as the two get older and the confusion emerges.
The books the film is based on, written by British-born Angie Sage, are already incredibly popular, shifting over 1 million in the States and hitting no. 1 in the New York Times Best Sellers List, with the fifth instalment, Syren (they really can't spell, can they?) due out in September. That's right, Rowling, watch out behind you - and it looks like the upcoming Percy Jackson series will also have some serious competition.