‘Eagle Eye’ Writer Adapting Fantasy Series ‘Imaginarium Geographica’
Apr 13, 2010 by Sandy SchaeferThe co-screenwriter of Eagle Eye will pen film adaptations of the fantasy series The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica.
Heat Vision is reporting that the first two books in James A. Owen’s successful young-adult fantasy series The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica will be adapted for film by Travis Adam Wright (who previously co-wrote the screenplay for Eagle Eye).
Geographica revolves around three young men (including Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien and Chronicles of Narnia writer C.S. Lewis) who are entrusted with the care of the Imaginarium Geographica – a secret book that contains information about all the mythical lands and worlds ever told of in legend, fable and fairy tale.
In the first two books of the series (Here, There Be Dragons and The Search For The Red Dragon) the three men engage in a series of adventures as they travel between worlds real and fantastical via the magical Dragonships.
As screenwriter Wright puts it:
“[It's] the best gift any fanboy of Tolkien, Lucas and Spielberg could receive. Here is a character-driven franchise that is both familiar and fresh, where wit and intelligence, not just rifles and regiments, win the day.”
Also on board the project is Lord of the Rings trilogy producer Rick Porras, who will certainly bring a fair amount of experience with regards to a big-budget movie adaptation of a popular fantasy series.
Here’s Porras’ two cents on the fantasy series:
“James Owen has managed to create a global ‘what-if’ franchise which subsumes not just the ‘LOTR’ trilogy and ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ but the entire canon of Western literature from Milton to Jules Verne.”
So yeah — pretty big words from both men considering they’re hoping to turn a popular fantasy series into a successful film franchise, something we’ve seen more than our fair share of over the past few years (see Percy Jackson & the Olympians for a recent example).
Not every popular fantasy novel makes for a good film adaptation - see above.
Like I said, Porras does have some experience in turning a fantasy novel series into an impressive cinematic achievement, and Eagle Eye was a moderate hit in theaters — though it was kind of a critical bust — so the film adaptation of Geographica does have some reasonable talent involved at this point. Unless a top-notch director signs on for the project, though, I wouldn’t get too excited just yet.
So what do you folks think? Do The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica sounds interesting?
Source: The Hollywood Reporter, Collider
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Depending on how closely they stick to the book, I think most of the literary references in the books would be lost on the typical movie going audience. It could be done well, but it will take a great script writer to accomplish it.
True. It's hard to judge Wright's quality as a screenwriter just yet since, well, the 'Eagle Eye' storyline was preposterous to begin with so he wasn't exactly working with top-notch material.
I haven't read these books, i'll have to check them out though.
I love the crap eragon movie reference too (it's a film they need to remake)
I cannot wait to see th emovies! Love the books. Please do a better job sticking to the story line. Please do not “dummy” down the plots. If they do it right it would be incredible! And like jon182 said, please remake Eragon. That WOULD have been a great film adaptation but for the fact that they cut out over half of the book and put the rest together very poorly.
I love all the books of the Imaginarium Geographica! these book are so inspiring to the fantasy world that you wish all was true. I hope that the depth to the movies will show all the glory and creativity James A Owen true vision, right down to the last detail of ariada string,and show all the winter king faces he is a amasing character! I can’t wait for the next book,to see how john and jack with rose’s help fix the time line. So please make this movie to the epix class as the lords of the ring ,this is what john the Principia Cavadie would want for his freind James a Owen.