The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: Long Live the Fantasy Film Genre!
How well do you know your Harry Potter trivia? Does the name Nicholas Flamel ring any bells? He was the alchemist responsible for “the Sorcerer’s Stone” in the title of the inaugural Harry Potter book and movie adaptation, but Flamel is more than a J.K. Rowling creation. He was an actual alchemist who born in 1330’s France, and besides Rowling, Flamel’s fanciful profession tickled the imagination of another author, one Michael Scott, who wrote a series based on the premise that Flamel may have succeeded in his alchemical experiments and unlocked the secrets to eternal life. And like Harry Potter before him, Flamel might get a chance to work some movie magic for big screen audiences.
The protagonists of Michael Scott’s book series, titled The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, are a pair of 15 year-old twins, Josh and Sophie, who accompany the alchemist on his adventures across the globe, helping him to safeguard his secrets from those who would use them for selfish and destructive ends.
The first three books in the Flamel series are called The Alchemyst, The Magician, and The Sorceress. May 25, 2010 will mark the arrival of a fourth installment, The Necromancer. Two more books, The Warlock and The Enchantress, are planned.
Talk of turning this series into a movie franchise started three years ago when New Line Cinema optioned the rights. However, after Warner Brothers downsized New Line last year, the rights were up for grabs again, and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura (G.I. Joe, Transformers) did the grabbing. The name Nicholas Flamel is bound to conjure associations with the Harry Potter franchise, a fact which di Bonaventura embraces, going as far as to say, “Michael’s fantastic series is a natural evolution from Harry Potter.”
As we approach the conclusion of the Harry Potter collection, fantasy fans are no doubt hoping for another group of movies to take its place. Efforts like Eragon and The Golden Compass fell flat. Can this one succeed where they failed?
For Kenneth Broadway, one bachelor’s degree wasn’t enough. So after the four grueling years it took to earn his B.A. in English and three years more trying to figure out something to do with it, he ignored the prudent advice of some very erudite professors who encouraged him to go to grad school and instead enrolled in a film program at Full Sail University. Fast forward two years and he has emerged a film school graduate knowing a little more about a lot of different facets of filmmaking, and more importantly, he knows more than ever what he knew when he entered film school in the first place. He wants to tell stories for a living. His academic life having revolved around books and movies, nothing thrills Kenneth more than a good literary adaptation (see Amadeus, The Remains of the Day, and The Lord of the Rings for examples). A little magic in his movies makes him happy. But you can keep your heavy-handed special effects; he will choose a quiet, anecdotal premise over explosive senselessness any day. In his spare time, he writes or he watches movies or he writes about watching movies, and that’s what brought him to Sound on Sight. 
Yes! My fave book series made into a movie! Dream come true! Gonna be an awesome film!
OMG, is it being made into a movie??? =D
It will be sooo great!
I read the flamel series…it’s AMAZING! WILL MAKE A TERRIFIC FILM!!!!