Film to be made of Joseph Delaney’s The Spook’s Apprentice

Enchanted Director Kevin Lima lined up to direct

Random House Children’s Books is delighted to announce that a film of The Spook’s Apprentice will be directed by Kevin Lima, who directed last year’s family blockbuster movie Enchanted.

Lima and his team hope to start work later this year on the adaptation of the book, which is about a 13-year-old boy who learns to be an exorcist from a forbidding old spook. Warner Brothers and Legendary are co-producing and co-financing along with Thunder Road. Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk is producing with Lionel Wigram and Lima’s producing partner, Chris Chase. The executive producer is Alysia Cotter.

Lionel Wigram and Basil Iwanyk comment: “We couldn’t be more thrilled to have Kevin Lima on board, as well as being a great film-maker, he loves the books as much as we do and has a profound understanding of how to translate them to the big screen.”

The deal was brokered by Charlotte Knight at the Rod Hall Agency in London on behalf of Random House Children’s Books in the UK.

Author, Joseph Delaney, comments: “I’m thrilled and delighted to hear that the creator of the excellent Enchanted is to direct the film adaptation of my book, The Spook’s Apprentice. It’s brilliant news!”

Charlie Sheppard, Editorial Director, The Bodley Head comments, “I have loved these books since I saw the first manuscript six years ago. To now know that the stories will be coming to life on the big screen for even more children to enjoy is a dream come true.”

The Spook’s Apprentice was published by The Bodley Head in 2004. The original book and further titles in the series were acquired by Charlie Sheppard from agent Carolyn Whitaker. The series has enjoyed considerable commercial success around the globe. Joseph Delaney will be embarking on a second tour of the US this year where his books are published by Greenwillow Books, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers. He will also be visiting Australia and New Zealand to promote the books. He has recently returned from France, where the books appear on bestseller lists, and a signing in Paris at the Salon du Livre.

July 2008 sees the release of the fifth title in the Spook’s series, The Spook’s Mistake. There will be a Spook’s £1 book for World Book Day next year, and the publishing programme which includes two new titles in 2009, extends into 2010.

Praise for The Spooks series:

“. . . ideal for the reader who has outgrown Harry Potter. Be warned, these books are seriously scary . . . Beautifully produced and consistently surprising these weird and wonderful [books] are an annual treat.” The Times

“Teenage readers looking for total fantasy should hasten to Joseph Delaney’s The Spook’s Apprentice” The Independent

Joseph Delaney discusses the Wardstone Chronicles - talking about the County and each of the five books in the series.

To see the full interview, read comments and post your own, visit the BBC website.

Great news for anyone who might have been concerned that the Spook’s Apprentice film might not live up to the scary nature of the book. It has been confirmed that the screenplay will be written by Matt Greenberg - a man who is no stranger to scary films, having written screenplays for the Stephen King film 1408 (starring John Cusack and Samuel L Jackson) and Halloween H20 (starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Josh Hartnett).

For more information about Matt Greenberg, visit his page on the IMDb.

It has been confirmed that Kevin Lima, director of 2007’s Disney family blockbuster Enchanted, will direct The Spook’s Apprentice - the first film in the Wardstone Chronicles series.

Upon hearing the news, author Joseph Delaney had this to say: “I’m thrilled and delighted to hear that the creator of the excellent Enchanted is to direct the film adaptation of my book. It’s brilliant news!”

The film is currently in pre-production and details of cast members are yet to be revealed. Watch this space for all the latest updates.

This, my first blog, will have to be short. You see, I’ve never been busier. Usually, I write just one book a year. This year I’m trying to do three!

The first is the sixth book about Tom, Alice and the Spook - it’s called ‘The Spook’s Sacrifice.’ Additionally, I’m writing ‘The Spook’s Bestiary’. That will be an illustrated catalogue of all the creature of the dark and will also contain some new pieces of fiction - accounts told by the Spook of his early encounters with ghosts, ghast, boggarts and witches. Thirdly, I’m writing a story for World Book Day 2009 (the £1 books). This will be the earliest of the Spook’s adventures, telling how he left home, met his new master and faced  double threat from the dark.
At the moment I’m also busy promoting ‘The Spook’s Mistake’. I’ve just finished a short tour of the Sefton area managed by Tony Higginson of Pritchard’s Book Shop, Formby. It was hard work (as many as four or five talks a day) but we sold a lot of books and I enjoyed the talks and meeting my readers. After that we visited Moorhead school in Accrington and received a great reception from a large audience of pupils and teachers from local schools.

This is my schedule of public events for the next few weeks.

Saturday June 7th  Waterstones, Wigan 10.30am
Tuesday June 10th  Borders, Preston  9.45 to 10.45
Wednesday June 11th Waterstones, Bolton  1.30 to 3.30
Friday June 20th Waterstones, Lancaster 3.30
Friday June 27th Waterstones, Kendal 2pm

Of course, there are other events but they are mostly in schools. Scheduled for later in the year are book tours of Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Romania. When am I going to find time to finish my three books?

Best wishes,

Joseph Delaney