The New York Times had an article yesterday about the movie rights to the Encyclopedia Brown series being sold. Apparently the author really really doesn't want a movie made of his creation, but he doesn't have much say until the movie rights revert back to him.
Regardless of the rights issues, I find the idea of a movie of Encyclopedia Brown kind of interesting. Generally I'm sceptical of movie versions of books that I like, but I actually think that in the right hands this series could make a great movie! The stories are episodic, so there is no risk of deep overarching plot being abreviated, altered or otherwise tweaked. The characters are simple and have managed to stay largely the same over the years. And since the main character is a boy, the risk of him being trivialized or made to be anything like the what movie studios think will be popular (that disgrace is usually left to female characters like Nancy Drew).
I think that the movie could easily suck too, but it certainly has potential for a good movie! Too bad the author doesn't think so. I do believe the author's wishes should be respected, so even though I think it could be a good movie, I will be sad if they make it over his strenuous objections. Oh well.
Posted by Katie at October 19, 2005 02:11 PM | TrackBackWasn't there already an Encyclopedia Brown movie, though? Or maybe it was a TV show or after-school special. I thought I remember seeing it somewhere...
Posted by: K. at October 19, 2005 04:23 PMThere was a television show in the late eighties (I think it was on HBO), but there has never been a movie to my knowledge. There has definately never been a movie in theaters about Encyclopedia Brown. So if there was one of some kind (although a quick google search turned up nothing - which doesn't actually mean much), it would have been a made-for-tv movie. The television show was actually decent from what I remember.
Posted by: Katie at October 19, 2005 04:43 PM