From The Goldfinch to Goosebumps: New Books to Film

We share the latest news in book-to-film adaptations, from the inevitable acquiring of Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch to the more surprising news about Jack Black starring in a Goosebumps movie.

Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer prize-winning bestseller, the love-it-or-hate-it The Goldfinch, will be adapted for the big screen. Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson, the producers of the Hunger Games films and World War Z respectively, have signed on to produce, along with Brett Ratner. The bad news is that the rights to her cult classic The Secret History, a book that surely begged to be made into a film, have been held for years, with no film yet in existence.

Believe it or not, there’s another Harry Potter film in the works, despite the series of books getting a film each already. Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, a companion book to the Potter series, is about to go into production, with Emma ‘Hermoine’ Watson on board. Fantastic Beasts was written as one of Harry’s Hogwarts textbooks; it’s a guide to the magical creatures in the Potter universe. Newt Scamander, author of the textbook, will be the main character of the film, set in 1920s New York. There will also be a television production of Rowling’s first novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy.

Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books have been acquired by UK film company Working Title, who plan to launch a series of Famous Five on-screen adventures. ‘It will be interesting to see what they do,’ Tony Summerfield, head of the Enid Blyton Society, told the Guardian. ‘Hopefully on screen the Famous Five books aren’t too quaint for the modern child. I honestly can’t see a film company trying to do anything like this without trying to sex it up a bit.’ There was a 2009 film (with both sex and scandal) about the life of Enid Blyton, starring Helena Bonham Carter; it seems she wasn’t so jolly good after all.

R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books – a long-popular starter-horror series for primary school age readers – are about to hit the big screen, with Jack Black playing a ‘creepy’ version of the author. The premise is that Stine’s creatures, previously confined to his books, are brought to life by a teenage neighbour and unleash havoc on the small town where he lives.