The new success of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax will have Hollywood clamouring for more kids book>movies adaptations. Here are some suggestions...

With the fourth film in the Dr. Seuss collection The Lorax debuting at number one on the US box office charts over the weekend (with an impressive $70.7m, easily the highest opening weekend of the year so far), it's sure to encourage Hollywood to plunder more juvenile literature for blockbusters. Children’s books can be an easy success, and when released in summer, have a fan base with a ridiculous amount of free time, and weekly pocket money.

Yet there are still so many beautifully written, popular children's books that have not graced our screens yet...

The Legend of Captain Crow's Teeth - Eoin Colfer

A second adventure in a series of books, “The Legend Of Captain Crow's Teeth” has pirates, ghosts, curses and revenge! Sounds quite heavy for a book meant for 7 to 10 year-olds, but it really is great fun. The film could combine the two worlds of scary pirates and ghosts, and boring holidays in Ireland, creating a magical, nightmarish world of Capitan Crow, in contrast to an caravan summer holiday five brothers.

The glowing rocks and hand coming out of the water could turn this book into one of the best horror stories for children in a very long time. The ending is also a lovely shift of powers, from an elder brother to a younger, giving the story an overall moral background to balance out the spookiness.

Who would play who?
The fearful Capitan Crow could be played by someone with a strong, scary presence, with none of the charm or charisma of the most famous pirate most children will know, Capitan Jack Sparrow. Possibly Christopher Eccleston or Stephen Graham.

The Cherub Series - Robert Muchamore

“The Cherub Series” are hugely popular books about a young boy called James Adams, and his transformation from a normal boy into a Cherub agent, going through gruelling training under the mysterious chairman Terence McAfferty. Every kid's dream, the Cherub agents are taught to fight, drive, and speak foreign languages. They go on secret missions all over the world, and have complete power to overrule police and other authorities.

A film has been in the pipeline for a while but nothing has been finalized yet. This could be a major cash cow, with 15 books and two series all together. Almost like a James Bond for teens, these books have massive potential for a franchise, and are very exciting, with a massive fan base.

Who would play who?
This would be a hard one to cast, because as the stories grow the characters grow with it, and with 47 named characters in series one alone, it would have to be a massive production. Series two would need a whole new cast, and it might be hard to get the audience to relate to a completely new set of characters.

James Adams would have to be portrayed by a strong child actor, similar to Alex Pettyfer in the first “Stormbreaker” film. The chairman would need to be played by a strong yet intelligent authority figure, someone along the lines of Ben Kingsley or John Malkovich.

Mistletoe - David McPhail

The beautifully-illustrated story of a Micky, a little girl who gets a wooden horse from Father Christmas, that turns real. Although it's a short story, the potential for stories of Micky and Mistletoe going on all kinds of adventures is endless. Being a seasonal story, a release in the Christmas holidays when there is already magic in the air could ignite little girls' imaginations everywhere.

Who would play who?
This would not doubt work best as an animation, with the illustrations  by the author David McPhail.

Astrosaurs - Steve Cole

Astrosaurs are a collection of books about dinosaurs in space. That sentence just screams movie! Following the adventures of Captain Teggs and his crew Gypsy, Arx and Iggy, on the DSS Sauropod,  the dinosaurs fight evil including space mumps, Lord Slyme, and Doctor Finkle. There are even spin-off books, “Astrosaurs' Academy”, concentrating on different dinosaurs before they become full astronauts.

This concept could be very attractive as a film - the recent advances in 3D and animation has the potential for the cinematography to be spellbinding. Think WALL-E, the scene with WALL-E and EVA flying round space with a fire extinguisher. Except with dinosaurs.

Who Would Play Who?
Again an animation, the voices could be done by stars that children would know, such as Ewan McGregor (a veteran in voice acting), possibly similar to the voices in The Land Before Time.

The Cathy Cassidy Books

Similar to Louise Rennison's “Angus, Thongs And Full Frontal Snogging” but slightly more tame, these books are about friendships and growing up. Dealing with themes like make up, boys and fitting in. A little clichéd, these books are very popular with young girls. Not a series, there are different characters and different settings in each, it could be quite tricky to create a story arc based around this. A massive empire now, Cathy Cassidy now holds friendship parties, and has ongoing competitions, collaborating with magazines like “Mizz”.

The ongoing themes are friendship and being true to yourself, rather than trying to impress others, so I’m sure they would be popular with parents as well. Possibly better suited to a TV-movie , rather than a big Hollywood blockbluster, this could work really well as an British film set in schools, which seem few and far between at the moment.

Who would play who?
With such an array of different characters in each of the 16 books, this could be a chance to discover some new British talent, possibly holding auditions for eager fans of the books.

Maximum Ride - James Patterson

A series of books based all around America, about group of friends who are 98% human, and 2% bird. A strange concept, but one that works so well. Similar to X-Men, these mutant children have to live and learn how to control their extraordinary powers. Fast paced, scary, sad and heart warming, this group of children are ultimately very likeable. Who hasn’t dreamed of being able to fly?

With darker themes than the other books, such as medical experiments on children and wicked wolf-like creatures who want to eat the main characters, this would have to be made for more of an older age-range. With adult and children versions of the book, there is a massive market out there, and again with 6 books a chance of a franchise.

Though Universal were set to pick the series up as a film, that project has still been 'In Development' since 2009, with rumours of Avi Arad of Spider-Man and X-Men producing, and Catherine Hardwicke rumoured to direct.

Who would play who?
Jeb, the father figure to the group in the first book feels like its written with Gary Oldman in mind, with the lovely Saoirse Ronan as Max.

Don't Cook Cinderella - Francesca Simon

Written by the same author as “Horrid Henry”, which was a box office flop, this book has a lot more basis in fairy tales. The story is fairytale goodies and baddies going to school together, with Miss Good Fairy and Miss Bad Fairy leading the classes.

With the new Snow White film, Mirror Mirror: The Untold Adventures of Snow White and Snow White and the Huntsman being released this year, stories based around well-known characters when they were young could be a great selling point. The contrast between good and evil is always popular, and seeing them up so close with magic, talking animals and characters children are already very familiar with could be a new refreshing look at fairy tales.

Who would play who?
I think a good idea would be to have Miss Good Fairy and Miss Bad Fairy played by the same actress, with a different hair colour or slightly different facial features, possibly Helena Bonham Carter, who has proved she can play 'evil Gothic' as well as 'sweet and caring'.

Elsewhere - Gabrielle Zevin

Personally, I don't know how this has not been made in to a book yet. A beautiful story about Liz Marie Hall, who is killed in car accident. Arriving at Elsewhere she discovers a land where you age backwards, which is a problem for Liz who is only 15, and she has to deal with the fact she will never become an adult while at Elsewhere. From the heart-break of Liz seeing her family through the observation decks, to the beauty of Liz' friendship with Owen, this book is a original and delicate view of the afterlife, written for teens or young adults. Similar to “The Lovely Bones”, but not as dark, this book is uplifting and tragic all at once.

Who would play who?
The backward ageing theme in this book would make the characters hard to cast. The story follows Liz, as a 15 year old, getting younger and younger. The actress would have to look younger throughout the film, but with advances in CGI (think Jeff Bridges in Tron Legacy) it's not impossible. Liz' grandmother, Betty could be played by Emily Blunt or another soft featured actress, who although young, could play a grandmother well.

Also see:

Ten good books that made bad films

Harry Potter Comes To An End

10 reasons The Muppets was great

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS ARTICLE, PLEASE HELP SUPPORT OUR SITE, AT NO COST WITH ONE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK 'LIKE' BUTTON BELOW:

If you're interested in writing for Shadowlocked (disc and screening reviews, etc, or just getting some extra coverage for your extraordinary writing talent, get in touch with us.