This week in Page to Screen--PW's weekly column tracking film rights circulating and sold in Hollywood--a story about a boy and his dog against the world, and a Flash Gordon-esque graphic novel series.
Julie Kane-Ritsch at Gotham Group is shopping film rights to Wolven, a YA series that's set to bow from Chicken House, a U.K.based subsidiary of Scholastic, at the end of 2009. The planned trilogy follows a boy and his special canine friend--the titular creature changes from a super-powered dog into a boy--out to save the world from a gang trying to turn shape-shifting creatures into weapons. Chicken House publisher Barry Cunningham, who described wolvens as "werewolves in reverse," said the series, by Di Toft, is one of the house's "most exciting finds in recent years" and is looking for the planned franchise to follow on the success of last year's hit Tunnels, which Scholastic published Stateside and Relativity Media optioned to the tune of $1 million. (Scholastic will publish the first book in the Wolven series in 2010.) Kane-Ritsch said she's already gotten "a lot of interest" in the manuscript from various producers and financiers and is waiting to hear back from studios.
Brendan Deneen, newly of FinePrint Literary Management, is shopping film rights to an original graphic novel series by Jay Piscopo called Capt'n Eli! Deneen doesn't rep for print, and Nemo Publishing has already released the first two volumes in the series; The Undersea Adventures of Capt'n Eli Volume 1 was published in July 2008. Nemo described Capt'n Eli!, about a boy's undersea adventures, as a combination of iconic brands—Flash Gordon meets Buck Rogers. Deneen, who's taking the series to studios and production companies, concurred on the classics front, and said it's "part Batman and part Johnny Quest."
