The man behind Men In Black is ready to throw his support behind a new scifi adventure series, Tom Swift. But what's the idea of making Swift a father-son adventure series?
The Tom Swift series of books began in the early 1900s, were created by Edward Stratemeyer. The series follows a boy genius through a series of science fictional adventures. In some of the early stories, Tom relies on his father and other adults, but in most of them, he's an independent teenager, inventing fantastic devices and having adventures on his own. But the movie pitch that Sonnenfeld is set to direct reimagines Tom as one half of a father-son team, who are the greatest inventors of all time.
The movie pitch, known as Swift, by Sonnenfeld and Ben David Grabinski, was competing with another version pitched by Albie Hecht (Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events), but now Hecht will produce the Sonnenfeld version, which Columbia Pictures has picked up.
It should be interesting to see if this movie takes off or not. It's got the campy appeal that fits in perfectly for a feel-good family movie. But we'll have to wait for more details. For now, Sonnenfeld is focused bringing another science fiction comedy to life, The How-To Guide for Saving the World.
[Variety]