Lewis, House Headed to Hollywood

Deadline Hollywood reports Longtime Phoenix Pictures co-president Bradley J. Fischer has formed Mythology Entertainment in partnership with screenwriter/producers Laeta Kalogridis and James Vanderbilt. "With backing from private investors, Mythology will develop and package projects internally before taking them to studios and financiers. Mythology starts the venture with...a feature rights deal to late author John Bellairs’s Lewis Barnavelt series of gothic horror novels for kids. Supernatural creator Eric Kripke has been hired to write the script and produce.

"First published in 1973, the book series has spanned 12 volumes, with illustrations from artist Edward Gorey. The books began with The House with a Clock in its Walls, which introduced the orphaned protagonist Lewis as he moves into his uncle’s spooky old Victorian mansion. Strange noises lead the lad to find secret passageways, hidden rooms and the unsettling discovery his peculiar uncle is a warlock. The boy finds his spell book and unwittingly resurrects an evil wizard who sets in motion a chain of supernatural events tied to an ancient secret hidden within the mansion’s walls. After Bellairs died, the series was continued by Brad Strickland.

'Jamie, Laeta and I are thrilled to launch Mythology Entertainment and to be partnering with Eric Kripke and the estate of John Bellairs for our first feature project,' Fischer said. 'As a kid, Eric was inspired by Bellairs’ work and these books have stayed with him through the years…As a company, we aspire to be a haven for artists and friends who believe in the power of myth and remember that feeling we all got as kids, when the lights went down and the images came up and anything was possible.'”

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