Ever since Harry Potter hit it big, various other companies have been looking for the next big family fantasy franchise. With the Hogwarts movies coming to an end, there’s a lot of people in Hollywood looking for ways to plug the gap and make a lot of money in the process.
Now The Gotham Group has bought the rights to the Italian fantasy series, Century, by Pierdomenico Baccalario, with an eye to developing it into a script and then partnering with a major studio to make a big scale movie version. The quartet of books follow the challenges of four teens and their families as they search for four ancient objects of power each connected to fire, earth, air and water. Of course, as there are four books, it’s also got franchise potential, which makes it even more attractive to Hollywood.
The first book, Ring Of Fire, has just been released in the US.
However while everybody wants to come up with the next Harry Potter, so far no one’s succeeded, with the like of Lemony Snicket and The Spiderwick Chronicles both faltering after the first film, and even Narnia showing weakness with Prince Caspian making far less money than The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The next big attempt will be Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, which is due out next February and even has Chris Columbus, helmer of the first two Potter movies, directing it. (Source: Variety)