Thursday, September 25, 2008

Chocky - Spielberg has picked up the film rights !

Steven Spielberg has picked up the film rights to John Wyndham's sci-fi novel Chocky, says The Hollywood Reporter.
The book revolves around a boy whose consciousness is taken over by an alien entity. The boy's father's suspicions are triggered when his son begins to argue with his imaginary friend.
Wyndham's best known book is The Day Of The Triffids, which became a feature film in 1962.
Spielberg hopes to make Chocky his next project, but may face delays as the movie was initially housed at studio Paramount, where his directing deal expired earlier in the year.
The helmer's animated Tintin trilogy hit problems last week when Universal declined to split the cost of the $130 million project with Paramount. The project is on hold for the time being while Spielberg hammers out a deal with the studio to foot the entire bill for Tintin.


Source Digital Spy

Chocky, Chocky's Children and Chocky's Challenge are a series of three shows based on the original 1968 John Wyndham book Chocky. The shows were made between 1983 - 85

8 comments:

Michael Grant Clark said...

ah, I remember the series. And the Jim Davidson character.

Great, another British literary work to be raped in the US. I think I'll see about buying the rights for Tom Sawyer and set it in Manchester with an all Indian cast.

Rol said...

Having recently (re)read Chocky, I have a very bad feeling about this...

Inchy said...

I remember this show too, but was never a big fan of it.

I see Morgan Freeman has got his hands on the movie rights to Arthur C Clarke's 'Rama' series . . . or did everybody know that already?

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Freeman showed interest in the Rama books as far back as the early 2000's and David Fincher was slated to direct. Phil Tippett and his studio were also linked but the project has a release date of 2009 according to the IMDB but that seems a bit premature as the film is still in the scripting stage according to various sources online. Fincher's name is still attached as director.

allen etter said...

Now, now Michael. I'm sure it won't be that bad. Remember how American entertainment handled Dr. Who-no wait, scratch that! Uh, Remember that American entertainment coprs. have the rights to "Spaced" so that couldn't...possibly...go...crap. Chocky's dead.

Michael Grant Clark said...

The US version of the office isn't too bad. But many things British don't translate well.

Buying a cup of tea in the states is a strange experience, I keep expecting them to put an umbrella and a banana in it.

allen etter said...

Agreed. Monty Python just isn't funny if done with an American accent.

TimeWarden said...

The only Spewburger film I like is "Close Encounters" and even that isn't bereft of over-sentimentality. "Chocky" might fare marginally better if it was made in the UK and for television.