By Paige Donner
(Moving Pictures Magazine Adaptations issue, Dec '06/Jan '07) Remember those favorite childhood books? The ones Mom and Dad would read to you at bedtime before you could even read them yourself? A few of the best of them have been made into major motion pictures this year - with mega-Star Power adding more than enough wattage for the nightlight.
Charlotte's Web Paramount Pictures and Walden Media may have teamed to nurture to life E.B. White's classic story of loyalty, trust and sacrifice, but it was Oscar®-nominee Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich) who delivered the goods as a live-action, G-rated adaptation The all-star role-call that must have made work fun includes Dakota Fanning as Fern - the special friend who helped raise runt-of-the-litter Wilbur into one radiant pig - and the voices of Julia Roberts, Steve Buscemi, Oprah Winfrey, Robert Redford, Reba McEntire, Cedric the Entertainer, John Cleese and Kathy Bates!
Why do beloved books, especially children's books, make such good film fodder? This is how Harold M. Foster, renowned academic, put it: "Films are a powerful influence... As much as teachers may not wish to face this fact, films compete with books as the primary mode of stories; and stories matter, and matter deeply." Children's Books at the Box Office One measure of success, total box office receipts, sheds the light of hard evidence on what we already know to be true: Children's books are a good bet for healthy box office. The Harry Potter movie franchise has grossed more than $3.5 billion worldwide, and book receipts ring in at well over $600 million since the first installment hit the shelves in 1998.
Potter, though a phenomenon, is not singular in its success. Spiderman 1 and 2 has grossed $1.6 billion worldwide, Lord of the Rings tallied $2.9 billion worldwide to date, and Walden Media's Chronicles of Narnia franchise is just getting started, with its first installment raking in $745 million worldwide. To get a tangible grasp on the number "billion," consider this for a moment: A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
Charlotte's Web is aiming at high numbers for its box office, counting on bringing in all those fans who have already made it the best-selling children's paperback of all time (with 9,899,696 copies estimated as sold). Due out this December are others playing to a similar audience: Eragon, the first of the Inheritance trilogy, starring John Malkovich and Jeremy Irons, and Miss Potter, a biopic of Beatrix Potter with Renée Zellweger playing the famed children's book author. Bridge to Terabithia
Not to be outdone, Disney (and, again, Walden Media) will present their jewel adaptation of Newberry Award-winning Bridge to Terabithia in February 2007. Academy Award-winning visual effects wizards at Weta Digital - who gave life to The Lord of The Rings and King Kong - add their magic to this story of friendship, family and the power of imagination.
Set in an imaginary kingdom created by two children as an escape from the school bullies in their real world, Bridge to Terabithia fits nicely into the fantasy-adventure sub-genre. It's also "young adult," or YA, literature.
YA, as a genre, is not well defined. The American Library Association identifies young adults as ages 12 to 18; Wikipedia is less definitive, saying young adults are those in transition from teenager to adult, or somewhere between ages 16 and 25. While YA literature is lit written for, published for or marketed to young adults, the boundaries between children's lit, adult lit and YA lit are often flexible and loosely defined. So, if we tap into this literary source, are we creating films for the young adult market or are we creating movies for adults that are being approved for our children?
What is the deep and flowing vein the Potter phenom sunk its teeth into? Here are some stats to consider: Between 1990 and 2000, according to U.S. Census data, the number of youths between ages 12 and 19 climbed by 4.5 million to 32.4 million. That increase translated into teenage expendable income of about $115 million in 2003. And, from 1995 to 2004, Fordham University's marketing professor noted that book sales in the YA market surged 86.9 percent to $444.4 million.
While ten years ago the classics, fantasy books and innocuous series dominated sales, the demand for teen books with more adult content themes has mushroomed with the advent of edgier cable TV content and the increase in the U.S. teenager population.
There's Mystery in Them Thar Hills Who better to weigh in as an expert than Emma Rose Roberts, our new Nancy Drew? Warner has slated Nancy Drew: The Mystery in Hollywood Hills for theaters come July 2007. With 175 volumes to its credit, Carolyn Keene's Nancy Drew series was first published in 1930. As of 1993, there were 80 million Nancy Drew books in print in 14 languages.
Emma agrees that "Kids' books make really good material for films," and confesses readily to being a huge fan of the Gossip Girl series. The film's story revolves around teen detective Nancy Drew as she accompanies her father on a business trip to Los Angeles, where she discovers clues to a Hollywood movie star's murder.
Emma Roberts, niece to Oscar®-winner Julia and daughter of Oscar®-nominee and three-time Golden Globe nominee Eric Roberts, is no stranger to the Hollywood Hills or the film industry. Her debut in acting came at nine years of age opposite Johnny Depp in Ted Demme's penultimate film Blow, and Nickelodeon had this young star acting and singing in the hit series "Unfabulous" for two straight seasons. With an album already wrapped under her wing and a career set to skyrocket, Emma shared her thoughts with us on the topic: Moving Pictures Magazine: What appeals to you most about the Nancy Drew character?
Emma Roberts: I really like the role. She's an iconic character, she's nice, she has old-fashioned values but is still a modern girl. She's a good role model for other kids. And she wears cute clothes.
MPM: In what way is Nancy Drew a good role model?
Emma Roberts: Mainly in that she's positive and optimistic. She tries to see the best in people, the positive in everyone, give people the benefit of the doubt. She's truly and really a "nice" person. She's independent, smart, ambitious; she's an all-around great girl... She's every mother's dream child and a role model for other kids.
MPM: Any difference between Nancy Drew the film character and Nancy Drew the book character?
Emma Roberts: That's the cool thing... They kept her the same. She's a classic, timeless. Even though she's an old-fashioned character, she's timeless. For example, she never loses her temper and always gives people the benefit of the doubt. And her wardrobe is super cute, but classic. She's a lady.
MPM: Were a lot of your friends already familiar with the Nancy Drew series?
Emma Roberts: All the kids are starting to read the books again. Most adults have already read the mystery novels, but now my friends are reading them again, too. I think kids my age will want to see the movie and read the book, both. Anyone who has read the books will really like the movie; they won't be disappointed... For example, I loved all the action, the car chases. I had a stunt double, even. We shot a lot in Hollywood. The script really attracted me to the role.
Blume on the Horizon
And there's even more good stuff to come. Venerable family-filmed entertainment producer Jane Startz has teamed up with Tashmoo, the production company of Judy Blume and Lawrence Blume to begin developing Judy Blume's treasure trove of children's literature into feature films.
More than 75 million copies of Judy's books , including Blubber, Superfudge and Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, have been sold in the U.S. and countless foreign markets. Six of the author's titles are among the top ten all-time best-selling children's books.
Startz, who produced Ella Enchanted and The Indian in the Cupboard for their big screen adaptations, and who also produced The Magic School Bus for PBS, feels that, "a good strong story in the hands of a good screenwriter and director has a leg up in seeing itself adapted from book to screen." She observes the children's book genre "offers an incredible wealth of wonderful material" that lends itself to the big screen. Notably, nearly every property that Startz has produced, as is the case with most of the films made by Walden Media to date, has made a stopover at Indiana's Heartland Film Festival before going on to wider distribution. Devoted to films with a moral tale to tell, Heartland was established in 1991 to recognize and honor filmmakers "whose work explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life." Heartland's upcoming partnership with Walden Media on the film Charlotte's Web will ensure that these entertaining and educational properties continue to reach the burgeoning market of intelligent teens represented by Emma Roberts. |
