As announced during Disney+ Day,The Spiderwick Chroniclesis being revived as a new series for Disney+ after the failed attempt to bring the series of fantasy books successfully to the big screen in a 2008 movie starring Freddie Highmore, Martin Short, Mary-Louise Parker and Seth Rogan. The movie, which was produced by Nickelodeon and Paramount, was well received by most critics and audiences, but the box office figures, which saw the movie pull in $162 million from its reported $90 million budget didn’t exactly spur Paramount to action on continuing the franchise. However, it looks like we now could be seeing a broader and more detailed interpretation with a long from series that will hopefully bring more of the world created by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi to life.
Of course, as Disney pump out a huge list of new projects, release dates and trailers to mark the second anniversary ofDisney+, detailed information on many of the new productions is thin of the ground andThe Spiderwick Chroniclesis no exception, as so far all we know it that the series is coming. However, the property itself is pretty well known both among book lovers and filmgoers who still hold the movie version in their hearts, not least for the performance of Freddie Highmore and the rest of the capable cast.
The Spiderwick Chroniclesoriginated as a series of books by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, which tells the story ofthe Grace siblings, twins Simon and Jared and older sister Mallory. When they move into the Spiderwick Estate, they discover a secret library, and a brownie named Thimbletack which is their first encounter with the creatures and wonders they go onto discover. The first book, entitledThe Field Guide, introduced the world of fantastic and often dangerous creatures that inhabit the world but cannot be seen by mere mortals. Over the course of the books,The Seeing Stone, Lucinda’s Secret, The Ironwood TreeandThe Wrath of Mulgarath, the children discover that they must fight to protect the things they love and prevent a dark evil taking over their lives.
The collection of books formed one story, which was adapted into the 2008 movie succinctly enough, but as with most book translations there is always more that could be told. Despite the books being published in 2003/2004 and being a very successful series, they were not as well known as otherfantasy works being made at the time, so a big budget movie was always going to have a mountain to climb in order to make serious money. Despite there being a follow up book series, which the sequel would have been based on, there was no desire to continue the franchise and the movie was left as a stand-alone.
There is a lot to look forward to with a series version of the book, as rather than cramming the story into a 95 minute runtime as was the case with the film, andDisneyare more than capable of bringing the story to life in an even more satisfying way.
