Although water-based films are notoriously difficult to make, that hasn’t put off The Gotham Group (the company behind The Spiderwick Chronicles, amongst others), who’ve bought the screen rights to Kat Falls’ upcoming novel, Dark Life. The book has been generating considerable buzz in the publishing world, so it’s perhaps not surprising that Hollywood has become interested before it even hits shop shelves.
The book, described as an underwater western, is set in a near-future world in which global warming has led to rising sea levels and natural disasters on the land. In order to escape this, some people have set up home on the ocean floor. The story follow a teenage boy from under the waves teaming up with a girl from the surface to uncover a government conspiracy.
The Gotham Group’s plan is attach a director to Dark Life, before taking the package to the major studios in order to try and find funding. It certainly sounds like it could make an interesting movie, although as we mentioned, water-based tales have a reputation for been horribly difficult to make (and going way over budget), which may put off the studios.