Columbia to Bring 'Tom Swift' to the Big Screen
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Scripts
It's been almost two years since Nickelodeon exec Albert Hecht nabbed the rights to Tom Swift, primed to guide the long-time adventurer's first trip to the big screen. And it sounded like a good plan -- kid adventurers are all the rage these days, and there are few notable icons left that haven't gotten the feature treatment. But that development never went anywhere, and now there's a new spin on the horizon (one that will still have him involved as producer). Variety reports that Columbia Pictures has picked up a pitch by veteran Barry Sonnenfeld and newcomer BenDavid Grabinski called Swift, which the Men in Black director plans to helm.As is usually the case during the early stages of a production, they're not saying much about what this first trip to the screen will entail, other than this "version would feature Swift as one-half of a father-son team who are among the greatest inventors of all time." In other words, a version that basically follows the classic story started in 1910, with a bigger father-son kick.
It's not every day that a project gets its first movie 100 years after first hitting the stands, and I have a feeling that this little project will look anything but dated. Considering the wildness of Men in Black, I'm expecting some pretty impressive inventor mania. But is this the right time? Has Swift avoided cinema for good reason, or was he just waiting for a 21st century reveal? Are you ready for big-screen Swift?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-01-2009 @ 5:32PM
Owen said...
Im def excited for this movie. I absolutely loved these books when i was younger. Just a bit curious if kids will have any familiarity with these books at all. I mean im 29 and im pretty none of my younger brothers would have any idea who im talking about if I asked them who Tom Swift is.
Reply
6-02-2009 @ 4:18AM
Matthew said...
"I can't wait" he said, impatiently.
Reply
6-02-2009 @ 3:35AM
maestro610 said...
Tom Swift was my first book series even ahead of the Hardy Boys but I mean the ones from the 50's and 60's . Growing up I went to this tiny Catholic school in Paterson, NJ and the principal used to scatter the bookshelves in all the classrooms with books donated by people from the church.
Anyway one day in 5th grade staying in the afterschool program he came into the classroom and started to remove all these old classic books and replaced them with new ones. The title was Tom Swift and the Cosmic Astronauts.
It was ridiculously out dated, the cover was faded and ripped and for some reason it just spoke to me. I asked the Principal if I could hang onto the book and he said sure come see him if I wanted to read the rest... Anyway like 30 books from that series and however many from the modern update in the early 90s and I'm excited.
Tom Swift was my Harry Potter... it lead me to the awesomeness of The Hardy Boys both the classic and the modern updates, A Wrinkle In Time, Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia and all manner of other fantastic ya fiction. Classic Swift was all about the space age building rockets and Space Kites... modern Swift books featured things like an online fantasy game where Tom and his friends were constantly defeated by another team's villain so he programs a virtual reality supercomputer to analyze game tactics.
I'm definitely looking forward to it and they can do an extremely futuristic ahead of our time update or if they want to transplant some of the fun they could do a retro future stylized world. Either way I'm in...
Reply