Although he’s not particularly well known in the UK, Tom Swift is a character who just won’t go away, and after many attempts over the years, it looks like he may be getting a big screen adaptation. The character first appeared in print in 1910 and since then has appeared in new books right up to 2007 (all released with Victor Appleton as the author, even though the man never existed and was just a pseudonym invented by the publisher, while numerous ghost writers were actually behind the books).
For those not in the know, Swift is a young inventor, who comes up with all sorts of weird and wonderful gadgets, which he uses to fight evil moustache twirling villains.
It now appears the man behind Men In Black, Barry Sonnenfeld, is working on a movie version of the books, with Swift as part of a father and son team of inventors who get hoooked up in an incredible adventure. In some respects it’s a good fit for Sonnenfeld, as long as he doesn’t get so hooked on the gizmos that he forgets the story, which was much of the problem with the director’s Wild Wild West.
There’s no news yet on when the film, which is being made by Sony Pictures, might appear in cinemas.