The Chronicles of the Children of the Lamp

Hollywood takes a lot of hits for a lot of things — most of those hits are well deserved, by the way — but you gotta give them props for one thing: no one squeezes blood from stones with as much brutal efficiency as these boys. They have basically bought up the movie rights to every comic book ever put on paper, and some that haven’t even made it to paper yet. That, and the quest to find the next “Harry Potter” or “Lord of the Rings” have driven them to scour dusty bookcases everywhere. Their latest Eureka moment is “Children of the Lamp”, about a family of genies. No, seriously.

More from THR:

The “[Children of the] Lamp” series, from British author P.B. Kerr, includes four children’s fantasy novels about a family of djinn (a kind of genie) who disguise themselves as humans but can still grant wishes. The books have sold more than 1 million copies worldwide and are viewed as a potential family-film franchise.

DreamWorks has already snatched up rights to the movie, and has set scribes Dave Guion and Michael Handelman to adapt the project (taking over for Lee Hall, who had first crack), with Mark Sourian and Chloe Dan producing.

More about the series of books from Amazon.com:

In this uneven fantasy, 12-year-old twins live a privileged but uneventful life in New York City until both John and Philippa need to have their wisdom teeth extracted. Afterward, the children begin to experience strange growth spurts, have cravings for smoke and heat, and gain the ability to grant wishes. After inviting them to visit him in London, their Uncle Nimrod informs them that they are descended from the Marid tribe of djinn. As he begins their training, they travel to Egypt, where they are pursued by Iblis, the leader of an enemy tribe who thinks Nimrod knows the location of the lost tomb of Akhenaten. This pharaoh bound 70 djinn to his service and whoever finds his tomb will have the ability to command them and shift the balance of power from good to evil. As they travel around the world, the siblings and their uncle have numerous adventures, culminating in an encounter with Akhenaten’s ghost.

Djinn, ghosts, Akhenaten, Nimrod — sounds like the names of guys I knew in college, and who I never, ever want to meet again. Ever.