« Sillof’s Star Wars Through A Steampunk Lens
Cup of Brown Joy – Tea-Rap »

Larklight Movie gets Director and Budget

Larklight - By Messers Philip Reeve and David Wyatt

I’m rather a big fan of the young person’s series of Steampunk books by Messers Reeve and Wyatt, known as the Larklight trilogy, so it is with great excitement and no small amount of crossing of extremities that I hear that the filming for the first book in the series, Larklight, has been given the green light, a budget and a director!  Mr Shekhar Kapur (director of Elizabeth and the sequel, Golden Age) has been signed on with a $200 million budget to bring it to the silver screen – a not insignificant amount of money, I hope you’ll agree.  Thank you for pointing it out, Jwlphoto!

With Warner Brothers at the helm, I cannot help but wonder who will be developing the inevitable game to accompany this huge a budget of a film – being a games industry person myself I am wringing my hands over the fear that a game might be rushed and shoddy (please don’t be!)  But to give an indication of how much I enjoy Larklight and its sequel Starcross, I’ve recently started reading it aloud to my gentleman friend – what an enjoyable way to revisit a book it is!  How strange that it is only children who get to enjoy such treats – I look forward to reading out Starcross and the upcoming Mothstorm in the same manner.  (Amazon links to the Larklight series in the UK and the Larklight series in the US.)

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 12th, 2008 at 2:57 pm by Tinkergirl and is filed under Books, Film Reviews.

  • Chipmunk
    Everyone must read The Artemis Fowl it is one of the best series ever! I have read Larklight and thought it was awesome I got it yesterday and I read it in a day it was so good. I am currently looking for Starcross and I think that will be really good aswell! if you read Artemis Fowl then you should read other Eoin Colfer books like 'Half Moon Investigations' and 'Supernaturalists' they are also really good and 'Dragon Rider' by Cornelia Funke and Inkheart and Inkspell and the next one in the series. Also read the Garth Nix series of 'Mister Monday' 'Grim Tuesday' 'Drowned Wednesday' 'Sir Thursday' 'Lady Friday' 'Superior Saturday' and the next one which is something with sunday in it. Wow i'm like a walking library aint I? :)
  • Artemis Fowl *is* good! Not really Steampunk as-is, but it would be a VERY short leap.
  • I love these kinds of books. for a series with a strong female character, I like the artemis fowl series. yes the main character is still a guy, but the head fairy girl kicks ass. i will be checking out the larklight book soon.
  • I like the new header-thingy defining "tinkerer." However, it appears to actually be defining the verb "to tinker" and not the noun "tinker-ER."
  • Hey TinkerGirl,

    I just wanted to say I love your site, and hope you've found some help with this blog. As a blogger and fan of steampunk myself, I haven't spent enough time dedicated to this craft and genre. However I hope you are aware of the articles on Gizmodo regarding Steampunk, as well I point you to 4chan.org. Do not go to /b/. DO NOT. It will probably scar you for life. However /tg/ and /toy/ frequently have Steampunk related posts.
  • Cool -- thanks for the info, Tinkergirl. Any other book recommendations?
  • What??!!
    This is the best news ever!
  • Gasps and grins; a third book *and* a film?!?! Surely you are trying to kill me with excitement!

    I was unawares of Larklight's wondrous website as well. When will someone make a whole operating system like that?
  • Oh dear. I have seen too many books ruined by Hollywood. If this film were to be independently developed I'm certain it would turn out wonderful, but unless Reeves has full control over the content of the film I have doubts about how good it will be, which is a shame as this book is such a delightful read!
    Just as they don't give it a typical Hollywood ending.
  • Tinkergirl
    Myrtle is a bit of a pain, it's true, but she does come through in the end in a most surprising and resourceful manner. More astute girls (and boys, I'm sure) will be able to see why it is that Myrtle acts the way that she does, even if Art (who is obviously not well versed in the ways of girls) cannot.
  • I've been looking for some books for my niece, and this series looks like it might be right up her alley. Bit worried about "Hermione-syndrome" though, where all the boys are adventurous and courageous, and their female foils tedious and (as the Larklight site describes Myrtle) "rather irritating." Can anyone who has read these offer an assessment of the characterization?

    Also like to add my whole-hearted support to the practice of adults reading aloud to each other. I started reading my wife Moby Dick when she was stuck sick in bed (and unable to escape,) but we've grown to really enjoy taking turns with it. It is engaging and intimate and hilarious in a way that sitting in front of Farnsworth's infernal box could never be.
  • macmangan
    Very cool. I'm halfway through the first book and am loving it. I hope they don't pack to much into it like Golden Compass. I liked Golden Compass, but they tried to do so much so quick not much time for character development. I personally think Stardust hit it on the head. Maybe we'll finally start seeing more of these steampunk movies.
blog comments powered by Disqus