The Dangerous Book For Boys To Be A Feature Film

Posted on August 6, 2007

Producer Scott Rudin will adapt Hal Iggulden's bestselling book The Dangerous Book For Boys (Collins) for Walt Disney Films. The Hollywood Reporter reports that PFD represented the authors in the deal.

"Dangerous," first published in the U.K. in May 2006, has held the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the New York Times and Publishers Weekly best-seller lists since its May 2007 stateside release and sold more than 1 million copies worldwide. The Collins/HarperCollins release also won the British Book Award for book of the year. Its success has inspired two upcoming books, "The Daring Book for Girls" and "The Dangerous Book for Dogs," a satire by several writers from "The Onion."

The book is the latest feather in Rudin's full cap. The literary-minded producer, who has a production deal with Disney and its specialty division, Miramax Films, has scored mainstream hits like Paramount Pictures' "Failure to Launch" and upscale Oscar winners including Miramax's "The Queen." His upcoming book adaptations include Dreamworks/Paramount's "Revolutionary Road," with Evamere and BBC Films, and Miramax's "No Country For Old Men," which earned acclaim at this year's Festival de Cannes.

It should be interesting to see how Rudin approaches this project. A monster hit in England before it was revised slightly for the U.S. market, the book has a somewhat random collection of chapters about "dangerous" things that boys should learn how to do: making a bow and arrow, building a go cart, learning helpful Latin phrases, palming a coin, tying knots etc. Who Rudin chooses as a screenwriter will no doubt give some helpful clues as to whether this will work or not.