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Is this the next Harry Potter?
"Hi there, welcome back to GRTV News, I'm Alex, as always going through the afternoons latest and greatest when it comes to gaming, technology, entertainment, whatever you like and indeed whatever you love, we always have it here for you at GRTV News and at the wider Gamereactor network as a whole, so if you like what you see and you want to see more, be sure to check out Gamereactor wherever you get it from for more gaming reviews, gaming previews, movie reviews, series reviews, exclusives, interviews, world news, sports news and of course so much more. Today we're talking perhaps the next big children's fantasy franchise as it seems that Disney is looking to make a big IP out of Impossible Creatures. If you're not sure what Impossible Creatures is, think Harry Potter, think Percy Jackson but in a new format, the first book coming out from Catherine Rundell, an Oxford professor in 2023 and is meant to be a five story saga. The second book has been released but the rest aren't yet currently out there for you to read through but already this series has proven itself to be a massive success. Rundell's Impossible Creatures has sold more than four million copies according to Deadline and has managed to make her own bit of history in being the first British author since J.K. Rowling to top the children's book charts in both the US and UK simultaneously."
"So obviously Disney here is seeing Harry Potter style of money, Harry Potter style of mass appeal as this is not only going to be a movie series that could impress a wider audience but also if you acquire the rights to it and more books come out, it's going to be a win-win apparently, allegedly for both. Obviously I can't see the future but Rundell is going to be involved in more than just sort of taking money from when these movies do come out or whatever Disney decides to do with it comes out as she's also going to be adapting the first two books into screenplays. Rundell is very, very committed it seems to making this a franchise as much as someone like Disney is as she's put the rights up for auction herself and has sold them to and was shopped around with numerous big studios and that Disney was apparently beat out, Disney apparently sorry, beat out Netflix and Warner Bros so those are some of the names that really are coming through with this. It's a seven figure deal as well which shows that both Rundell and Disney are very, very serious about making this IP something that's going to make a lot of money. It'll be interesting to see when it goes, if it goes sort of head to head with the revived Harry Potter series to see if people are going for more old franchise or new franchise stuff. In any case though Impossible Creatures as I said has defined itself as sort of being the children's franchise of the 2020s. Now I've never heard of it personally to get subjective for a minute because I'm not a child nor do I have children in my life but it does seem that it's very popular with them. It's about two children who explore fantasy islands and look around for fantastical creatures, magical creatures to save from evil. A very simple set up but people do seem to really, really enjoy it. As I said they're just two books out at the minute. There are plans for prequels, spin offs and more as well when this five story saga is done but hopefully we see more of a Harry Potter style of content coming out rather than a Game of Thrones style of content coming out where we don't have the movies finishing the story before Rundell is ready to finish it herself or whether we get to see both the books end and then the movies end that later down the line. Again though this is probably years away that we'll actually see a film from this as people will need to be cast, a story will need to be written. Rundell even though she's going to be adapting the screenplay and has already written the book will likely take time to do that. That's going to need a director on board, that's going to need a commitment on board as well because you'd imagine that if you're hiring people like child actors that you're not going to want them to age like Stranger Things or something like that so you're going to want to be doing it Harry Potter style, maybe one after the other every year and year and year. I don't know, let me know if you're aware of Impossible Creatures, whether you're excited for this new franchise that could be making its way to our screens somewhat soon and what you think of it. Let me know all that and more and I'll see you tomorrow for some more GRTV news, goodbye."
