Spielberg, Snider and ‘39 Clues’

Posted by Paige MacGregor (paige@filmschoolrejects.com) on June 26, 2008

We all know that Hollywood likes to make movies out of source material from other mediums (or at least pretend that’s what they’re doing when they appropriate the title of the ’source material’ and then change everything else about it). And if that isn’t bad enough, Hollywood has begun optioning source material even before its release, as we recently saw when Mark Millar (Wanted) discussed the production timeline of his next graphic novel adaptation, Kick-Ass, noting that the production rights were sold nearly two months before the novel’s Feb. 2008 release.

Now, director Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks co-chair/CEO Stacey Snider have hopped on board as well; through negotiations between Snider and Scholastic Media president Deborah Forte, DreamWorks recently acquired screen rights to Scholastic’s upcoming multi-platform adventure series The 39 Clues, set to hit bookshelves Sept. 9, 2008.

Currently, Spielberg is signed on to co-produce the flick alongside Forte, and it is expected that Spielberg will take the healm to direct and announce a screenwriter within the next few weeks.

Both Spielberg and Snider expressed a great deal of interest in The 39 Clues during recent interviews:

“The 39 Clues” takes “creative leaps to expand the story experience from the pages of the books to multiple stages of discovery and imagination,” Spielberg said in a statement.

“There is enough material here for three or four movies,” Snider told Daily Variety. “Steven is very involved and passionate. This excites me as an executive but also as a mother. It is an educational, challenging interactive experience that hits kids where they live.”

Currently envisioned as a 10-book series to be released over the course of two years, The 39 Clues will also include a set of collectible cards and an online game that will serve as a portal for readers to try and solve a mystery for a grand prize of $10,000.

The 39 Clues tells the tale of the most powerful family in the world, the Cahills, who count Napoleon and Houdini among their relatives. According to sources, readers will be “challenged to discover the source of the family’s powers, revealed through 39 clubs that are hidden around the world and scattered throughout history.”

It’s unclear whether Clues will remain at Paramount after Spielberg and Snider exit the studio and re-establish DreamWorks as an indie, nor do we know how that might affect the film’s outcome.

No information as to how the 10-book series will be adapted for the screen, but given the myriad of children’s and young adult books that have recently been turned into summer blockbusters (the Harry Potter series comes to mind), Spielberg has a great deal of precedent to fall back on. Hopefully he won’t screw it up.

Read more articles by Paige MacGregor