Michael Scott’s The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel to be adapted for the silver screen

Lorenzo di Bonaventura (G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra/Transformers) has signed a deal to produce a big screen adaptation of Michael Scott’s six-part fantasy book series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel.

Di Bonaventura is no stranger to supernatural success stories; as production president at Warner Bros., he was integral to the genesis of the ‘Harry Potter’ series, ushering the first two movies into production before leaving the company three years later to take up a producing deal at Paramount.

The books are centred around Nicholas Flamel, the real-life French alchemist who was born in 1330 and was rumoured to have pursued the secret to immortality through his work on the philosopher’s stone. The books’ other protagonists are 15-year-old twins Sophie and Josh Newman, who travel around the world with Flamel in search of adventure.

Read the Fantasy Book Review of The Alchemyst

Delacrote Press, an imprint of Random House, has published three books in the projected six-part series: The Alchemyst, The Magician and The Sorceress with The Necromancer due in May 2010.

New Line originally acquired the rights to the ‘Flamel’ series in 2006 but were forced to make them available again following the studio’s downsizing last year. Di Bonaventura’s next picture is the upcoming spy thriller ‘Salt,’ starring Angelina Jolie and Liev Schreiber.

An authority on mythology and folklore, Michael Scott is one of Ireland’s most successful authors. A master of fantasy, science fiction, horror and folklore, he has been hailed by the Irish Times as ‘the King of Fantasy in these isles’. He lives and writes in Dublin.

Posted: November 21st, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Michael Scott

Exciting competition for Michael Scott’s Irish and Northern Irish fans

Random House Children’s Books (RHCB) and Children’s Books Ireland (CBI) have teamed up to create an exciting competition for young people in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Kids are challenged to draw their own alternative front cover design for THE MAGICIAN by Michael Scott. The second book in Scott’s bestselling series, it contains amazing set-pieces and action scenes all of which are open for interpretation by young people.

The winning entry will receive signed books and a wooden art chest, while the school of the winning entry will receive €500 of RHCB books.

Georgia Lawe, Deputy Publicity Director, at RHCB comments: “We find that competitions or challenges which engage young people and ask for their input and creativity are very effective. The Magician is the perfect book to spark young people’s imaginations because it’s rich with characters, strange creatures, fantasy settings and big action scenes. We’re delighted to be working with Children’s Books Ireland, they’re such a dynamic and well regarded organisation.”

See www.childrensbooksireland.ie for more information.

An authority on mythology and folklore, Michael Scott is one of Ireland’s most successful authors. A master of fantasy, science fiction, horror and folklore, he has been hailed by the Irish Times as ‘the King of Fantasy in these isles’. He lives and writes in Dublin.

Book review of Michael Scott’s The Alchemyst

Posted: May 30th, 2009
Author: Floresiensis
Categories: Michael Scott

Michael Scott (The Alchemyst, The Magician) shortlisted for 2009 Irish Book Awards

Ireland’s leading children’s author, Michael Scott, casts a spell over readers as he is shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards 2009

This shortlisting gives further proof to Michael’s position as one of the leading writers for young people and fantasy fans in the world. THE MAGICIAN is the second novel following on from the international bestseller, THE ALCHEMYST.

Michael Scott uniquely weaves historical fact with myth and legend to create un-put-down-able fantasy adventure novels. Michael stumbled across the idea for the books on a trip to Paris: I can pinpoint, almost to the day when the idea solidified into The Alchemyst. It was late September 2000, in Paris, and I had stumbled – entirely by accident – across Nicholas Flamel’s own house in the narrow Rue du Montmorency: the Auberge Nicolas Flamel.” Michael realised what an interesting character Nicholas Flamel was; a man who, himself, has been the subject of hearsay and rumours since his supposed death in the 15th century.

But Michael’s books are certainly not dusty tomes of historical fact: “I wanted to write a contemporary fantasy, one set very firmly in the present, with modern teenagers as my heroes, characters who used computers and cell phones, who sent emails and text messages.”

It’s this juxtaposition between modern-day action/adventure and the history and myth that make Michael’s work so original. And he has legions of fans – Michael receives over 1000 emails per week from children and fantasy readers throughout the world wanting to know more about the books.

Irish-born Michael Scott [link to biography, bibliography] began writing over twenty-five years ago, and is one of Ireland’s most successful and prolific authors, with over one hundred titles to his credit, spanning a variety of genres, including Fantasy, Science Fiction and Folklore. He writes for both adults and young adults and is published in thirty-four countries and in twenty-four languages.

He is considered one of the authorities on the folklore of the Celtic lands and is credited with the resurgence of interest in the subject in the mid-1980’s. A bookseller for over 20 years, Michael is an accomplished scriptwriter and headed up the drama department in Tyrone Productions, the creators of Riverdance, where he also scripted for high profile events such as the Special Olympics and the Irish Film and Television Awards. He has worked as a television producer and a presenter.

Praised for his “unparalleled contribution to children’s literature,” by the Guide to Children’s Books, Michael Scott was the Writer in Residence during Dublin’s tenure as European City of Culture in 1991, and has featured in the 2006 edition of Who’s Who in Ireland as one of the 1000 “most significant Irish.”

This is the fourth year of the Irish Book Awards and for the first time, this year, the overall winners of the children’s categories will be chosen by a public vote. Fans can vote at www.irishbookawards.ie

Posted: April 12th, 2009
Author: Floresiensis
Categories: Michael Scott

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Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill
Some doors are better left closed . . . In Barrington House, an upmarket block in London, there is an empty apartment. No one goes in, no one comes out. And its been that way for fifty years. Until the night watchman hears a disturbance after midnight and investigates. What he experiences is enough to change his life forever.

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Competition: Win a signed copy of Graham Hancock's Entangled

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Graham Hancock is the author of The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis, Heaven's Mirror, Supernatural and other bestselling investigations of historical mysteries. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages and have sold over five million copies worldwide. Written with the same page-turning appeal that has made his non-fiction so popular, Entangled is his first work of fiction. We have five signed copies of Entangled to give away as prizes. Email us the answer to the following question and the lucky winner, chosen at random, will receive a copy of the book, signed by the author.

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Book View Cafe is a cooperative site created by a group of writers - including internationally renowned authors Katharine Kerr, Ursula Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre - who want to take advantage of the internet's possibilities for reaching a wider audience and to distribute their work directly to their readers. The Book View Cafe is a place where you can find free, original fiction plus the authors' best and out-of-print work for a fee. Fantasy Book Review spoke to Book View Cafe member, science fiction author and memoirist Chris Dolley in February 2010.

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Lewis Carroll, the elusive author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, has been the subject of enduring fascination for the past hundred years. The destruction of many major documents about his personal life by his descendants has only magnified the mystery. Jenny Woolf's biography, published to coincide with the release of the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film, lays waste to the myths and suspicions that have obscured Carroll's reputation by placing him firmly in the context of his own time.

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