VARIETY: WB options 'The Genius Files'
Studio acquires feature rights to best-selling children's book series
Warner Bros. has optioned New York Times best-selling children's book series "The Genius Files" by author Dan Gutman.
Harper Collins has already published two tomes in the six-book sequence. The third novel is skedded to hit stores in January.
Story centers on two pre-adolescent brothers (Coke and Pepsi McDonald) who get into a series of adventures in the name of national security. The brilliant duo keep their activities a secret from their parents, however, as the whole family travels across America in an RV.
Hollywood has adapted Gutman's children's tomes before. TNT turned novel "Honus and Me" into the 2004 TV movie "The Winning Season" starring Matthew Modine. Book was described as a cross between "Field of Dreams" and "Big" and centered around a boy who finds a baseball card which transports him back to the 1909 world series.
Observers have described the "Genius Files" books as in the vein of "Spy Kids" and "Agent Cody banks." Niija Kuykendall will oversee for WB.
Hotchkiss and Associates completed the deal on behalf of Eden Street LLC