MichaelScott Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It never surprises me when someone takes two movie trends and mixes them together. It makes sense for business, because two popular ideas can presumably lead to twice as much success at the box office. So of course it is obvious that someone would think to combine the fashionable fantasy genre with the hot topic of global warming. Novelist Michael Scott made the pitch to producers Arnold and Anne Kopelson (The Devil's Advocate) with a 15-page treatment for an as-yet-unwritten book called Otherworld. The book and movie will be set in the present and will be about ancient demons that are unleashed because of global warming. This is Scott's second movie-rights deal in a year; his upcoming novel The Alchemyst, which is the first in an expected series, was sold to New Line last fall. Unfortunately for New Line, the second book in that series may take a long time to be released. Considering Scott now has the Otherworld novel to write, and then he's set to write the screenplay himself, he sounds like he'll be pretty busy for awhile.

As much as I welcome any attempt to communicate the dangers of global warming, I can see Otherworld being about as silly as The Day After Tomorrow. Fantasy and science fiction rarely work when combined with real serious issues, because no matter how hard Hollywood tries to be important, they always end up being more interested in providing entertainment. And while serious discourse and entertainment can go hand in hand, a lot of filmmakers just don't know how to do it successfully. Hopefully Otherworld will be one of the rare films that doesn't end up being a hokey message movie rolled up in a blockbuster package.

Apparently, no one can resist Mark Burnett when he sets his mind to something. Burnett, as anyone who hasn't been living on an island will know (well, maybe a few island dwellers know as well) is the producer of reality shows like Survivor and The Apprentice, who did what most people in Hollywood say never to do -- he used his own money to snag the rights to Michael Scott's series of fantasy novels The Immortal Nicholas Flammel (as our own Erik Davis reported in September) and was then going to shop them around looking for a home.

Well, it appears Black Friday deals have come early for Burnett because according to a recent Sci-Fi wire article, New Line Cinema has made a deal with Burnett and will be putting down its cash to finance the films adapted from the series. Once the deal is completed, Burnett and New Line will begin looking for a writer to adapt the first book of the series, The Alchemyst, which begins the story of two teenage twins who find themselves on a quest to save humanity when a book belonging to the legendary alchemist Nicholas Flammel, containing secrets that in the wrong hands could spell the end of humanity, is lost. The boys must then race against time to find it before its too late.

As a fan of these kinds of movies, this sounds like a series of books that could be turned into some good, entertaining movies. Obviously, New Line and Burnett think so too and, of course, New Line is most definitely looking for a new fantasy franchise now that The Lord of the Rings is done and The Hobbit adaptation is up in the air. In the end, even if the books do turn out to be good source material, the movies relative merit will ultimately rest most heavily with who ends up handling the writing and directing chores. Hey, now that Peter Jackson appears to have some free time on his hands, maybe he would like to jump on another fantasy franchise? Now those would be some movies worth watching. Oh wait, first he and New Line would have to kiss and make up. Forget that.