It's as if all our childhoods have come back to visit. This year saw Nancy Drew finally reach the big screen, there's been talk (if not action) on The Hardy Men, a twist on The Hardy Boys, and now Tom Swift has been optioned for the big screen.
The stories, which have been on the go since 1910, are about a teen genius called Tom Swift (no surprise there then) who worked as an inventor and solved problems through the application of newfangled technologies. Like Drew, they're all written under the same pseudonym, Victor Appleton, but started off as part of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, which published reams of such teen adventures and were written by many different authors. From its World War I roots on there have been several distinct incarnations of the character, including futuristic spins, trips to the moon and journeys around the world. If and when a film does get made, there's no telling what genre it will be, never mind what story.
Worldwide Biggies is the company that bought the rights, and they plan on following a sort of Jimmy Neutron release model with a film, games and a TV show. The current thinking is that any film will be a mixture of live-action and CGI, although it might be motion capture, and Swift Industries, the family business, is likely to be set up as a leading "green technology" company.
So are there any Swift fans among you? Will you be queuing to see this when it comes out - possibly with your grandparents in tow?