
Not familiar with
Varjak
Paw? Yeah, me either. According to Amazon, it's a children's book of British origin, the first in a series for
grade school kids. Whatever. Another property I'm probably going to tell you has been bought by Walden Media, with an
eye to turning it into a zillion dollar franchise, right? But it's not. First of all, check out this summary:
"When danger...intrudes upon the sheltered existence of a family of Mesopotamian Blue cats, Varjak must venture
Outside for the first time to seek help...His nights are filled with dreams of his fabled ancestor Jalal, who teaches
him the Seven Skills of the Way of Jalal; they help him, in his waking hours, learn to fight and hunt." People,
this is a CAT. Fighting danger. Dreaming. Plus, in the immortal words of
Keanu
Reeves, he knows Kung-Fu. I mean, if anything can be so odd that it morphs into pure genius, I'm pretty sure this is
it. And not only is the concept of this series pure gold, but the movie rights have been bought by the one studio with
the ability to do it justice: The Jim Henson Company. Can I get a hell yeah?
The movie will be directed by
former illustrator
Dave
McKean (who just directed
Neil Gaiman's
MirrorMask), from a script he's planning to write with S. F. Said,
the author of the series.