"Narnia" Producer and Penguin Team Up for Books, Film, TV
March 27, 2006By KIMBERLY MAUL
The Book Standard
A new multi-year arrangement with Penguin Young Readers Group will give Walden Media LLC greater influence in book-publishing, through TV, film and book projects.
Known for family-friendly and educational programming, Walden Media, a rapidly expanding player in the books-to-film arena, has worked with several publishing companies, including Random House and HarperCollins, for its adaptations, for instance, of Louis Sachar's Holes, directed by Andrew Davis, Because of Winn-Dixie, by Kate DiCamillo; and C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which has grossed more than $700 million to date. But the company has until now limited its focus on books themselves.
"For years, teachers, after-school group leaders and librarians have been advocating for Walden Media to move into the publishing space," said Micheal Flaherty, president and co-founder of Walden Media. This joint venture will give the Los Angeles-based company a presence in New York, as well as directly on print, as the company will publish books through Penguin, under its own eponymous imprint.
Its first jointly published book, Jim Thorpe, Original All-American, by Joseph Bruchac, will be released in August. A film adaptation produced by Walden, called Carlisle School, will tell the story of Thorpe, the legendary college football player.
Upcoming Walden Media film adaptations include Heat, by Mike Lupica; Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, by Zach Helm; Paddywhack Lane, by Bob Fuller; Carl Hiaasen's Hoot; and E.B. White's Charlotte's Web, starring Dakota Fanning.
The company's production of the sequel to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - titled Prince Caspian - is currently in pre-production and scheduled for release on Dec. 14, 2007.
In January, Walden Media acquired the film rights to a children's trilogy by Isabel Allende, and, last May, Susan Cooper's five-book epic fantasy series known as The Dark Is Rising Sequence.
