I mentioned new author Naomi Novik's series">series several weeks ago as one of my favorite new finds. Look's like Peter Jackson is interested in giving them the Lord of the Rings">Lord of the Rings treatment.

Naomi Novik has written three fantasy novels chronicling the Napoleon-era adventures of a swashbuckling ship captain and a heroic dragon named Temeraire who fight to rescue Britain from a French invasion.

Now she has a dramatic tale of her own: Geek Girl Makes Good.

Ms. Novik has just sold the film rights to all three of her books to Peter Jackson, the director of such blockbusters as “King Kong” and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. The deal has completed her ascent from a computer programmer to a virtually unknown writer to a newly minted member of a select group of authors — J. R. R. Tolkien among them — whose novels could receive the extravagant high-tech, big-budget Jackson treatment.

Sitting in the living room of the tidy Upper East Side apartment she shares with her husband, Charles Ardai, Ms. Novik, a petite, pale and bookish-looking 33-year-old, said she had always hoped her novels would catch Mr. JacksonÂ’s eye.

“I fantasized about Peter Jackson,” said Ms. Novik, surrounded by bookshelves crammed with “Star Wars” figurines and vintage toys that bring to mind the apartment of the lead character in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” “Before we ever sent the books to Hollywood, really, I was talking, we were joking with friends. Even my parents were saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the man who did ‘Lord of the Rings’ bought your books?’ ”

“I’m a big geek and a fangirl,” she said, referring to her penchant for fantasy fiction. “If you wanted to make a dragon movie, I would be incredibly excited about it, just for that. And if it’s mine, so much the better.”

It is nice to see science fiction and fantasy works going more and more mainstream instead of being treated like escapist fare for pimple-faced teenagers with no friends. Some of the best writing today is found in the genre, which is so much more than Star Trek and Star Wars.

By the way, to give you a quick taste of what reviewers are saying of Novik's work, I encourage you to look at this.

Reviewing her first novel, “His Majesty’s Dragon,” in The Washington Post, Rachel Hartigan Shea wrote that the book contained a “generous dollop of intelligent derring-do.” The Times of London called it “Patrick O’Brian crossed with Anne McCaffrey: historic, seafaring adventure, with dragons.”

And now, coming soo to a theater near you!

And speaking of Anne McCaffrey, when will we get a film or television adaptation of the Pern novels?

Posted by: Greg at 10:22 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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