Ivan Waterman discusses how popular children-oriented novels are being turned into money-spinning franchises in Hollywood
THE joke making the rounds in Hollywood concerns the over zealous producer packed off to snap up the prequel rights to the money spinning Harry Potter books. As you'd expect, nobody has seen him since he left Burbank. Or was that Culver City?
But then, perhaps the concept is not as laughable as it appears. 'Think prequel or sequel' seems to be the name of the game if there is any noticeable trend in the movie market 'A' league. Welcome, as they say, to Franchise City.
And if there's a series of books involved in the deal, just stand back and see the zeros on the cheque forming. Need any evidence? Look no further than J K Rowling's bank account. Harry Potter's creator is indeed, rolling in the stuff.
As Mark Johnson, the producer of the adaptation of C S Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, put it: "The sky is the limit if you can find another Potter. There is so much money involved. It's pretty frightening but that's what many producers are trying to do. It's the books which
counts, the instant ability to move on with the characters , to take the story one step further."
The list of all-time box office juggernauts makes fascinating reading. There are nine family films in the top ten. The Lord of the Rings series has now scooped almost $3 billion, nudging just ahead of the $2.5 billion raked in by the irrepressible master Potter.
But with Mike Newell's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire about to add to the take -- the fifth story Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is soon to go into production - the Master of Hogwarts will have the financial edge.
Where do we go from here? The latest Potter is alleged to have cost Warner Bros a staggering $250 million. Narnia, say conservative sources, was brought home for Walt Disney Pictures in 140 days on location in New Zealand for $120 million.
According to Johnson, 59, studios are now prioritising on making 'Tent Pole' movies. "They are called that because they hold the whole thing up. They are banking on one film being a huge winner and producing smaller films around that. If there's also a franchise involved, they'll get very excited."
Johnson had a champagne Oscar night through Barry Levinson's Rainman . He smiles: "People come to us and asked about a sequel but we thought that would tarnish the original." From his own slate of movies his favourite is A Little Princess which he dedicated to his own 'princess', his daughter Rebecca.
He said: "There has been a definite move away from the Stallone and Swarzenegger film genre. In America the success of G rated and PG rated family films is phenomenal. That's where you will be looking for your $500 million box office revenue.
"We call them 'Four Quadrant' films, features which appeal across the board to everyone. They're the ones which are so difficult to find but are the most rewarding. To reach young and old, men and women."
To meet that requirement Johnson and Narnia director Andrew Adamson sculpted sections of C S Lewis's The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe with special effects to ensure the film had wider appeal. "We have been very faithful to the book." he insists. "But there are certain expectations out there. For us, there had to be a big action pay-off."
Walden Media has optioned all seven of C S Lewis's Narnia tales and informed sources say the introductory film must gross at least $250 million if Adamson is to make a sequel.
They have plenty of rivals. Take the new magical Nanny McPhee, with Emma Thompson as the wrinkly child carer who could give Mary Poppins a run for her money.
The jury is still out on Nanny who had to face massive high street opposition from the likes of Wallace & Gromit, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride and the seemingly invincible Harry Potter. The Oscar winning, multi-talented Thompson stumbled on a dusty old Nanny book on her own bookshelf before putting the idea to her Sense and Sensibility chum, producer Lindsay Doran.
Thompson herself starred in the film with Colin Firth and Imelda Stanton. Director Kirk Jones came out of 'semi-retirement' seven years after making the award winning Irish comedy Waking Ned to inject his own brand of fun and humour into the proceedings.
Jones, who hails from Bristol but now lives in Buckinghamshire, said: "I wanted to be involved in something heartwarming and moving and this touched me. It had been a long wait. But whether we'll do more, who knows? I hope so. The scope is certainly there in three books to take Nanny back to the past or forward to the future.
"I don't know about magic formulas but to me it's nothing more complicated than having a great story with great characters. The children and the adults have to be appealing. People need to associate with what is up there on screen.
"I have no doubt there are whole departments in the Hollywood studios with the sole task of finding books to turn to scripts."
Another likely 'franchise' winner for tomorrow is Stormbreaker which has just wrapped in the UK and stars teenaged newcomer Alex Pettyfer as adventurous Alex Rider, the hero of the best selling novels by Anthony Horowitz.
Based on the first of the stories, the $50 million film directed by Geoffrey Sax will introduce the reluctant 14 year old superspy who gets hired by the intelligence services for a mission which will eventually save millions of lives.
The cast is prestigious, ranging from Ewan McGregor as Alex's father Ian Rider, to comedy star Stephen Fry as Smithers, outwardly a genteel assistant at London's leading toy store, but secretly a dastardly Q style creator of exotic gadgetry to MI6.
Andy Serkis plays Mr Grin, the unfortunately disfigured henchman of the megalomaniac villain, and Rider's mutant faced nemesis Darrius Sayle (Mickey Rourke). Alicia Silverstone, Bill Nighy and Damian Lewis also figure in the heady mix.
Entertainment, in the UK, and The Weinstein Company, run by the larger than life Bob and Harvey Weinstein, are putting their shirts on young Rider's exploits. Author Horowitz, who also wrote the screenplay, is quietly confident...
A senior source on the production, which was made at Pinewood Studios and on the Isle of Man, said: "The timing and subject matter feels right. But an awful lot of money has been channelled into this. There will be severe repercussions if things do not go well."
Sax, who made the controversial BBC drama Tipping the Velvet, is in a similar position to new Harry Potter director David (State of Play and Sex Traffic) Yates in grappling with the transition from television to big budget film.
The urbane, cool Yates is unflustered by the trail of golden glory which Potter left at the box office. He is devoting the next two years of his life to Potter 5 and is clearly excited by his mission.
"There is a huge responsibility attached to this and an immense challenge to do even better" says the Merseyside born and raised bachelor. "The films have such an amazing track record...
"The key ingredient is that they explore universal themes. They relate to growing up, morality, good and bad paths and, temptation. Primary themes are veined throughout the material. Another factor for success is their branding potential to make them worthy of large investments."
Roald Dahl's works are a good example with Johnny Depp currently starring in Disney's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (aka Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory). Add that to the success of Matilda, James and the Giant Peach and The Witches.
"They are all primary fables with a morality." says Yates. "Jo Rowling and Dahl have created these extraordinary stories and characters. Audiences connect to them. It's escapism with issues."
Hollywood's movie makers can fire wide of the 'Tent Pole' with Jim Carrey's Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events as a prime example. The $125 million budgeted movie, based on Daniel Handler's books, recouped only $120 million worldwide by Summer.
So, the search goes on for, as Mel Brooks might put it, "The Motherload." All eyes, Harry Potter and Narnia apart, are on Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy which caused a sensation at the Royal National Theatre two years ago.
Pullman, 59, a CBE in the 2004 New Year's Honours list, was reportedly paid a record advance by New Line and Scholastic Productions to option his dimension-crossing odyssey which takes its title from essayist and poet John Milton's Paradise Lost.
His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass is due to be shot in the Spring by Anand Tucker who made Bill Murray's Shopgirl from a script by Chris 'About a Boy' Weitz.
Norfolk born Pullman was hurt by stinging media criticism over his original stage production.
The thrust of the attack was for creating a "Satanic-like" anti-Christian diatribe. But he claimed his philosophical epic preached love, not hate: "the qualities that the story condemns are cruelty, intolerance, zealotry, and fanaticism. Who could quarrel with that?"
Meanwhile, back in the land of Narnia, affable Mark Johnson prepares for a lengthy promotional tour with his White Witch, actress Tilda Swinton, who became almost a permanent fixture in the art-house films of the late director Derek Jarman.
"We're supposed to be tough, hard people from Hollywood aren't we?" grins Johnson. "But nothing equalled the sensation of seeing so many happy, smiling kids in the audience when we made A Little Princess.
"That sensation remains with you, forever, no matter how much money you happen to be making."
© Ivan Waterman. Courtesy, BAFTA Awards Brochure
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