The Bookseller.com

20th November 2008

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Wyndham set for revival

30.09.08

The work of The Day of the Triffids author, John Wyndham, is set to undergo a revival, with Steven Spielberg-owned company Dreamworks snapping up the rights to his 1968 novel Chocky.

Lesley Pollinger, m.d. of agency Pollinger, which handles the literary estate of the late author, sold the TV and film rights to Chocky on behalf of the owners, the producer Peter Rogers, the estate of John Wyndham and Richard Bates.

Pollinger said that Dreamworks paid "megabucks . . . even at the present rubbish pound/dollar exchange rate” for the rights, but that they remain "cagey” as to whether Spielberg would direct.

Chocky is a science-fiction novel about a young boy who appears to have an imaginary friend, but it is later revealed that he is in fact taken over by an alien entity—a fact interesting to shadowy government agents. It was made into a children’s TV series by Thames Television in the 1980s.

Pollinger said that she was hoping there would be a big revival” of Wyndham’s work in the US, with plans to republish his novels. They are all still in print, published by Penguin.

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