Animorphs Authors Part Ways With Upcoming Movie

Fans were excited to hear that Scholastic Entertainment and Picturestart were working on bringing [...]

By Matthew Aguilar

Fans were excited to hear that Scholastic Entertainment and Picturestart were working on bringing K.A. Applegate and Michael Grant's Animorphs series to the big screen, especially since both creators were on board to consult and make sure the film delivered on the books. Unfortunately that is no longer the case, as Grant has announced they have parted ways with Picutrestart over "creative differences". He didn't elaborate, but he said he might a bit further down the line. That said, he gave an example of the type of differences with a link to a previous blog post that went in-depth on some of the back and forth Rick Riordan had regarding the Percy Jackson movies, and since he said it was the same general idea here, we can imagine that some issues over the writing, the movie's tone, and more are to blame for the split.

Grant wrote on Twitter "#ANIMORPHSmovie update: With great sadness we have decided not to participate further in the @picturestart effort. We may post a full explanation on Reddit later, but for now let's go with 'creative differences.' If you want the general idea see: https://rickriordan.com/2018/11/memories-from-my-tv-movie-experience/"

If you're curious about the issues Riordan had, here is an excerpt from his blog on the subject.

"Thinking about reboots even hypothetically made me remember the process I went through with those Percy Jackson movies. I was indeed consulted at some points, about some things. I did my best to give feedback that would help. At the time, obviously, I couldn't really share any behind-the-scenes information with you guys, the readers, but since these conversations are now almost ten years old (yikes!), I thought you might like to take a look at some of the correspondence and suggestions I sent to the producers while they were planning THE LIGHTNING THIEF movie. I hope this will give you a sense of what I was trying to do behind the scenes. Whether/how much the producers listened to my ideas, I will let you be the judge. As I've said many times, once I saw the final script and saw what they were doing on the set, I realized I had to step away for my own peace of mind. I never saw either of the movies in their final form. What I know of them, and how I judge them, is based entirely on my experiences with the producers and on the final scripts. The SEA OF MONSTERS movie is a whole 'nother story, but it followed basically the same process."

What do you think of the split? Let us know in the comments!

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