Website

The vampire series, House of Night by mother and daughter duo P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast has been optioned by producer Michael Birnbaum and director Jeremiah Chechik.

The series kicked off just last year with Marked and quickly followed with Betrayed, Chosen and Untamed. A fifth book, Hunted is set for March of 2009.

Marc Forster, director of the latest Jame Bond thriller Quantum of Solace is to helm the film adaption of the bestselling World War Z. The novel by Max Brook tells the story of a worldwide infestation of flesh-eating zombies that emerge from China through first person accounts of various survivors.

Marc Foster previously adapted the well-recieved film of the best-selling The Kite Runner. Joining Foster is Babylon-5 creator J. Michael Straczynski as screewriter. Brad Pitt's Plan Bis producing the film.

Meryl Streep will star in a film based on the Vicki Myron's novel Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World for New Line Cinema. The book chronicles the lives of employees at a library in Spencer, Iowa after a kitten wanders in through an after-hours book return slot on a cold winter night and becomes the library's mascot.

Pamela Gray will adapt the script. Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey will produce. Streep will play the book's author.

Looking ahead to 2009, a number of books are being looked into for a movie adaption.

• Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn is currently in the scripting phase.
• The Alchemist by Paulo Choelo is in the early planning stages for next year.
• All Quiet on the Western Front is currently in the casting phase. This would make the third time the novel has been made into a film.
• Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Micheal Chabon is being adapted by the Chabon and the director of the film Billy Elliot.
• The long in development film of Anne Raynd's Atlas Shrugged may or may not finally hit the screens in 2009 with Angelina Jolie.
• The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly is eyeing a productions start in 2009.
• The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp looks to start swinging Excalibur in 2009.
• The bestseller, Freakonomics, is being adapted into a documentary.
• Recent Stephen King chiller, From a Buick 8 is being brought to the screen by horror veteran Tobe Hooper (Poltergiest, Lifeforce, Texas Chainsaw Massacre).
• Two science-fiction epics, Foundation by Issac Asimov and Dune by Frank Herbert are looking to start production next year as well.

Actor Hayden Christensen is set to return to last year's blockbuster Jumper for a further two movies. The star is in talks to front two sequels to the sci-fi film and, although the production schedule has yet to be finalized, he is confident he will be reprising his role. He says, "We're talking about it. I know that they're having those conversations, I hear about them. "It was set up to become that - a trilogy - if it did well. And I think they're happy with how it did so they want to make another one. But I don't think they're rushing to get into production."

From IMDB 9 June 2008 5:06 AM, PDT

Pre-production has begun on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the next chapter in Disney's fantasy franchise. Director Michael Apted (The World is Not Enough) is scouting locations in New Zealand in anticipation of the October start date for filming.

This chapter of the centers on the two youngest Pensieve children as they journey with King Caspian across dangerous seas in search of seven lost Lords of Narnia. Included in the story are merpeople, a giant sea serpent, a waterfall into the sky, a noble death, a dragon, a fallen star, an alchemic whirlpool and a place where nightmares come alive.

Confirmation of earlier rumors regarding the final Harry Potter book to be split in half arrived straight from the studio on Wednesday. Warner Bros. revealed that Part 1 is scheduled for release in November 2010 and Part 2 in May 2011. Reporting on the studio's announcement, the Los Angeles Times commented today (Thursday): "The publishing industry is learning to live without new Potter releases, but Hollywood just pulled off a trick that will keep its profitable hero on his broom into the next decade."

Jason Patric ("Speed 2," "Sleepers") and Thomas Dekker (TV's "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," "Heroes") will join Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin in the drama "My Sister's Keeper" for New Line reports Reuters.

Director Nick Cassavetes' adaptation of Jodi Picoult's novel follows a former district attorney (Diaz) and her fireman husband (Patric) who are sued by their 13-year-old daughter (Breslin) for emancipation.

The daughter was conceived and underwent several operations to help save her ill older sister (Sofia Vassilieva). Dekker plays the older sister's boyfriend and a fellow cancer survivor.

Alec Baldwin and Joan Cusack also star. The film is currently shooting in Los Angeles.

Reprinted from Dark Horizons: Wednesday, March 12th 2008 1:25am

Warner Bros. has picked up rights to Jeff Smith's acclaimed independent comic book series "Bone" says The Hollywood Reporter.

Running from 1991-2004, the series has sold more than a million copies so far. A decision on what kind of format "Bone" should take -- live-action or animated or both -- will be based on filmmaker meetings.

An animated version was previous in development at Nickelodeon Films but fell through due to the studio wanting to make a kiddie-orientated film complete with pop songs.

Reprinted from Dark Horizons: Sunday, March 9th 2008 12:45am

Chris Columbus will direct the film adaption of I Love You, Beth Cooper and Larry Doyle will adapt the screenplay from his own novel. Shooting is set to begin next month in Vancouver. Paul Rust will star alongside Hayden Panettiere, Jack Carpenter, Lauren Storm and Lauren London.

Click on the cover image on the right for information on the book.

From Dark Horizons; Wednesday, February 27th 2008 1:28am

William Faulkner's 1948 classic, Intruder in the Dust is getting a cinematic remake in 2009. The novel was previously adapted for film originally in 1949 by director Clarence Brown, with David Brian and Claude Jarman Jr.

Click on the cover image on the right for information on the book.

The script was penned by Holly Gent & Vince Palmo. Filming is scheduled to shoot on the Isle of Man, London and New York beginning in February.

Click on the cover image on the right for information on the book.

From Dark Horizons; Friday, February 1st 2008 1:35am

A new feature adaptation of Emily Bronte's gothic romance Wuthering Heightsis due next year with John Maybury directing. Olivia Hetreed, who adapted the novel The Girl With a Pearl Earring for the big screen, penned the script. Casting is under way to shoot in the fall.

The novel has been adapted into film a number of times dating back to 1920; including in 1992 with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, 1970 with Timothy Dalton, and in 1939 with Laurence Olivier.

From Dark Horizons; Friday, February 1st 2008 1:38am

The Hobbit films will be prequels to the The Lord of the Rings films, focusing on Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who joins a group of dwarves and the wizard Gandalf on a quest to find the treasure of a dragon named Smaug. Del Torro previously directed the Oscar-nominated Pan's Labyrinth, The Devil's Backbone, Blade 2, Hellboy and the forthcoming Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

Del Toro and Peter Jackson, the director of the Rings trilogy, will oversee Hobbit's writing.

Both films will be shot simultaneously during 2009 for a total production budget of $300 million (the original Rings trilogy cost an economically modest $270 million). The release of the first film is slated for 2010 and the second in 2011.
From Dark Horizons- Monday, January 28th 2008 12:18am

From Dark Horizons- Monday, January 21st 2008 12:37am

The Hollywood Reporter reports Meg Cabot's Queen of Babble series has been optioned for a movie by Sharp Independent, a new film producing arm of the book publisher Harper Collins. Author Meg Cabot had a previous book adapted into film, The Princess Diaries in 2001.

From Dark Horizons Saturday, January 19th 2008 12:12am