Over the years, there have been countless examples of books being adapted for television and movies, and that will likely continue to be the case moving forward as well. Hollywood simply can’t resist taking an already established world and bringing it to life on the screen, but for every box office or ratings hit, there are two or three adaptations that simply didn’t land. One such film is a fantasy adaptation that failed to deliver at the box office 11 years ago, and yet today it has become a major Netflix hit.
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Back in 2014, Universal Pictures hoped to launch a franchise with an adaptation of Joseph Delaney’s The Spook’s Apprentice, which is the first chapter of Delaney’s hit Wardstone Chronicles series. The novel was published back in 2004, and in 2014, director Sergey Bodrov adapted the story for a film titled Seventh Son.
A Second Life
If you’re trying to remember the film making a big impression on the box office, you would be forgiven, as Seventh Son unfortunately didn’t make much of a dent. The film had a budget of $95 million, and it made just over $114 million at the box office by the end of its run, pretty much sealing any chance of a franchise or sequel, at least in that form.
Crazily enough, the film has found a second life on Netflix, cementing the 6th spot on Netflix’s Global Top 10 Movies list. Mind you, that’s a list that includes some real heavy hitters, including 28 Years Later, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Man on Fire, Ruth & Boaz, and KPop Demon Hunters, so the fact that it has been viewed 4.9 million times and has been viewed for 8.4 million hours is incredibly impressive.
Couldn’t Break Through
Seventh Son had a lot going for it in the lead-up to its theatrical release, including a stellar cast that featured Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander, Kit Harrington, Djimon Hounsou, Ben Barnes, and Olivia Williams. It was also based on a popular book series, and despite the film not resonating with fans, the books continued to hit, with 13 books in the main series and four spin-offs released.
Despite the popularity of the source material and the all-star cast, the film was met with mostly negative reviews, with the Rotten Tomatoes critic score currently sitting at 12%. The audience score sits a bit higher at 34%, and now it seems a whole new legion of fans has discovered it as well.
Seventh Son tells the story of a Spook named Gregory, who has spent the last few decades hunting witches and monsters after imprisoning the incredibly powerful witch Mother Malkin. Mother Malkin eventually escapes and kills Gregory’s apprentice after regaining her power, and she starts to assemble an army as well.
To help take her down, Gregory recruits Tom Ward to be his new apprentice, as Tom is the seventh son of a seventh son, though as the movie continues, we learn there’s more to Tom’s history and backstory that makes him a perfect choice to face Mother Malkin’s forces. Gregory and Tom’s adventures continue in the next book of the series, which is titled The Spook’s Curse, and it was released in 2005.
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