SFFWorld News – 7/8/08

1) DreamWorks has acquired screen rights to The 39 Clues, a multiplatform kids fantasy adventure series to be launched in the fall by Scholastic Media, for a film project that may be directed by Steven Spielberg. The 39 Clues will be a 10-book series released over the course of the next two years. The books will include a set of collectible cards and an online game that will allow young readers to solve a mystery contest for a grand prize of $10,000. The series focuses on the Cahills family, the most powerful family in world history. The books and the game/contest let kids find the 39 clues hidden around the world and scattered throughout history that reveal the source of the family’s powers, teaching kids geography and history. 

2) British author Mark Chadbourn has announced a six-book deal for the U.S. market of his novels with U.S. publisher Pyr. Pyr will publish the first in Chadbourn’s new Elizabethan fantasy series The Swords of Albion, next year in the fall, (published in Britain by Transworld,) and Pyr will also be publishing Chadbourn’s award-nominated Age of Misrule trilogy in Spring 2009. Chadbourn may come to the U.S. to tour.

3) The terms of SFF legend Andre Norton’s will have resulted in legal wrangling in the Tennessee Court of Appeals. Norton, who had a 70 year long, prolific writing career, has created a copyright conflict between her most devoted fan and her caretaker. Having no children or close relatives, Norton, who died in March 2005 at the age of 93, left property in her estate to Sue Stewart, her long-time caretaker, and made Stewart the beneficiary of a residuary clause, granting her rights to all other property and money not explicitly assigned in the will. Norton’s will also granted Victor Horadam, a friend and correspondent of Norton’s, the royalties from all posthumous publication of any of her numerous works, including her bestselling Witch World series.

Stewart and Horadam are now engaged in a legal suit to determine which publications will be considered posthumous royalties and which might be considered to be Stewart’s inheritance. Horadam has expressed concerns about preserving Norton’s literary legacy. Further publications of Norton’s works, even those with collaborators, are now on hold until the courts settle the dispute. Among her many other awards and achievements, Norton was the first female author to win the Grand Master of Fantasy Award from SFWA and the Nebula Grand Master Award.

4) Legendary Pictures, producers of blockbuster fantasy-history movie 300, has confirmed that a sequel is underway. Frank Miller, who wrote the graphic novel 300 on which the film was based, will write a second graphic novel to serve as a source for the new film. The new story may be a prequel, since most of the main characters of the story died at the ancient Battle of Thermopylae. Director Zack Snyder has yet to commit to the sequel project, nor is there word if actor Gerard Butler will return as King Leonidas.

5) Supernatural creator Eric Kripke has signed a two-year exclusive deal with Warner Brothers TV. Kripke will continue to run the series Supernatural for the CW network in the U.S., entering into its fourth season, and develop new television projects. Kripkie has mentioned that he might do a prequel sort of series that borrows Supernatural’s mythology, but is set in the American Old West.

6) Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, star of U.S. network Fox's canceled supernatural series New Amsterdam, has signed on to Fox's two-hour SF pilot Virtuality. The new series, from Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ronald D. Moore, is set aboard Earth’s first starship, which is equipped with advanced virtual-reality modules. Coster-Waldau will play mission commander Frank Pike. The show pilot, written by Moore and Michael Taylor, will be directed by Peter Berg.
 
7) Actor Jim Caviezel joins Ian McKellen in a six-part miniseries remake of cult 1960’s sci-fi series The Prisoner for the AMC channel in the U.S. Caviezel will have the starring role as Number Six, a former British government agent who is kidnapped and taken to a mysterious village where his captors try to exact information from him. McKellan will play head captor Number Two. The original television series was written by Patrick McGoohan, who also starred in it as Number Six. The new miniseries will premiere sometime next year.