Joseph Delaney's "The Wardstone Chronicles" will become the next adolescent fantasy series to make the jump to the big screen with the upcoming adaptation, The Seventh Son. Jeff Bridges signed on for the pic last month, and will play the role of a master exorcist known as "The Spook" - fittingly, since The Dude would definitely not abide by evil spirits. ;-)
Bridges' Big Lebowski costar, Julianne Moore, has also signed on to portray the film's villainous lead, Mother Malkin - a lovely but sinister sorceress who dabbles in blood magic and is known as the most evil witch in the world (take that, Anjelica Huston in The Witches!).
The Seventh Son is based off the first novel in Delaney's original series, "The Spook's Apprentice". It follows the adventures of 13-year-old Tom Ward as he trains in the art of exorcism and demon battling, under the tutelage of Master Gregory - or, rather, "The Spook" (Bridges).
Bloody Disgusting has the exclusive on Moore joining the cast of Seventh Son, and also confirmed that newly minted Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence won't be signing on as the possibly-a-witch-herself Alice, a relative of Moore's Mother Malkin.
I Am Number Four's Alex Pettyfer was circling the role of Mr. Ward recently, but the 20-year-old star has not yet signed on. Whether that's because he's holding out in hopes of being cast alongside Lawrence in the Hunger Games adaptation - or already has been, unofficially - seems likely at this juncture.
While the first Percy Jackson film adaptation, The Lightning Thief, wasn't able to replicate the box office success of the most famous and successful "young boy trains to master his magical powers" series (not that clarification is needed, but... Harry Potter), it did well enough to spawn a sequel. That film also fared better at the box office than The Spiderwick Chronicles, another adolescent fantasy series that was born in the wake of J.K. Rowling's boy wizard creation.
Warner Bros. is surely hoping for Seventh Son to be as popular (and then some) as The Lightning Thief at the box office. It doesn't really have the kind of blockbuster potential that The Hunger Games has, which explains why stars like Pettyfer and Percy Jackson himself, Logan Lerman, have both shown interest in signing on for the latter franchise.
With a cast that now includes both an accomplished character actor and actress, along with a director in the form of Sergey Bodrov (the filmmaker responsible for the Oscar-nominated Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan), The Seventh Son could be a worthy title to follow in the footsteps of the Harry Potter franchise. Now it just needs to pin down a young actor for the lead role.
Production on The Seventh Son is slated to begin in Vancouver later this year on September 13th. The film will likely arrive in theaters by either late 2012 or early 2013.
Source: BD Horror News