Animorphs, the popular ’90s children’s book series by K.A. Applegate, has a plot that’s as engrossing as its legendary book covers. The sci-fi collection follows five teenagers — Jake, Marco, Cassie, Rachel, and Tobias — who can morph into any animal they touch, a secret ability that helps them fight in an ongoing alien invasion. Now, seemingly unprompted, Scholastic Entertainment has announced they’re teaming up with Erik Feig’s Picturestart to adapt those Animorphs books into a feature film, according The Hollywood Reporter.
Animorphs will be a live-action movie co-developed by Scholastic and Picturestart. Scholastic Entertainment’s Iole Lucchese and Caitlin Friedman will co-produce alongside Picturestart’s Feig and Lucy Kitada. Development of the script will be handled by Scholastic’s Friedman and Picturestart’s Royce Reeves Darby. There’s no word yet on whether or not the film will tie back to the Canadian-produced Animorphs TV show that ran for two seasons in the late ’90s.
“We couldn’t be more excited to work with Scholastic to adapt Animorphs, an iconic book series with a wildly unique combination of exciting, witty, outlandish and grounded elements that feel all too relevant for our times,” Feig said in a statement. “We know these books have a deservedly deep bench of passionate fans — ourselves included — and we hope to make Katherine Applegate and her co-author, Michael Grant, proud as we bring Jake, Marco, Cassie, Rachel, and Tobias to life for a new generation.”
“The central themes of Animorphs have resonated strongly with kids for more than two decades, and the time is right for a feature film that takes this captivating sci-fi adventure to another level for audiences today,” added Lucchese. “Picturestart has an incredible track record of success, and Erik and his team are the perfect partners to help bring this exciting new series based on the adventure-packed books to movie screens.”
Editors’ Picks
From its visual appeal to its sci-fi narrative, Animorphs is an indisputably wild story that’s long overdue for a big screen interpretation. The fact that Scholastic is finally capitalizing on this almost feels too good to be true considering the books’ original run in print occurred from 1996 to 2001, and their hype has since been regulated to youthful nostalgia. Needless to say, the first look photos from this movie adaption might just break the internet when they’re published.
