According to an exclusive from The Hollywood Reporter, Universal Studios are in talks to pick up movie options for the 39 Clues series.  The series is made up of 10 books and have been amazingly popular with young readers thanks to their quick moving plots and the multi-media components.

This may all sound familiar, since DreamWorks had optioned the film rights back in 2008.  A screenplay was written and a director selected, but it is unclear whether the script will be used on the new project and who will direct.

 

The film version of Lois Lowry’s The Giver is building an impressive cast according to an article in Deadline. 

Jeff Bridges has been attached to the project for some time and now Meryl Streep will be playing the chief elder.  Also joining the film are Alexander Skarsgard and Cameron Monaghan.  Brenton Thwaites will be playing Jonah.  The film starts shooting in eight weeks and is a co-production of The Weinstein Company and Walden Media. 

Here’s hoping that such a stellar cast will result in a film worthy of one of my favorite books of all time. 

USA Today has the first stills from the upcoming film version of The Book Thief which will be released November 15th.  They also have an article about finding the young star, Sophie Nelisse.  I only hope the beauty of the stills is the way the entire film looks and of course that they really follow the incredible story of the book.  Though it is that amazing writing that will be lost in the translation to film.

Thanks to YA Highway for the link.

This fall, The Hallmark Channel will airing a film version of The Watsons Go to Birmingham.  Here’s hoping it comes to DVD or Netflix!  Huffington Post has the trailer which is certainly worth seeing.

Thanks to Fuse #8 for the link.

At Comic Con, they released an exclusive teaser trailer for Catching Fire.  Now it’s not so exclusive.  Enjoy!

The release date for the film version of The Book Thief has been moved up.  Originally set for January 2014, it will now have a limited run in November of this year.  It’s all about positioning for the Oscars.  I look forward to seeing Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson in it.

Thanks to EarlyWord for the news.

EarlyWord has some fresh news on two movie projects based on children’s books:

The 2010 novel, Trash by Andy Mulligan is scheduled to be released in May 2014.  Martin Sheen and Rooney Mara are set to star in it.

The Seventh Son, a movie based on The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney has a first trailer out.  The film has been delayed multiple times and now is scheduled for a January 2014 release. Here is the trailer:

 

ScreenDaily has the news that Random House Children’s Screen Entertainment has optioned the worldwide film and TV rights for The Kissing Booth by Beth Reekles.  Originally self-published online, the book was then issued as an e-book and finally as a print book. 

  

The Hollywood Reporter has the news that Encyclopedia Brown may just be made into a movie.  Warner Bros. is in negotiations to get the movie rights of this children’s series.  This is not the first attempt to bring Encyclopedia Brown to the big screen.  In 1989, HBO ran a short-lived TV series based on the books. 

We will see if this is the time that this boy detective finally makes it to the movies.