Alex Rider: Book to Movie Vent

I need a moment to share my displeasure with movie distributors. Anthony Horowitz writes this amazing J/Y series about a teenage MI-6 spy named Alex Rider. I love it. This is not an exaggeration.

Last year I was tickled pick to hear that the movie for book one, Stormbreaker, was in production due to come out over the summer. I plugged the movie and the latest book at my school visits. Children were very excited! I was very excited! Then Ewan McGregor signed on and I had heart palpitations -I know it's a small part but he makes such a dashing spy...

The UK got a big opening, but then disaster struck. The US opening was delayed. It was delayed again...but ultimately...it never showed in this area! Believe me, I checked my movie times every weekend. I would have ventured out of the safety of the suburbs for this movie. And then came the poor reviews and I couldn't even go see it to judge for myself! Such frustration!

Flash forward to last weekend. My DH (dear husband) and I were strolling the aisles of Blockbuster waiting for inspiration to strike. We get most of our movies through the library and we just don't rent often enough (read: holds haven't come in) to warrant a Netficks subscription.
We'd selected Stranger Than Fiction (btw it was good in an interesting kind of way) when I finally found my long awaited Alex Rider sitting on the shelf.

I have seen the movie twice now and perused the special features.

My reaction: a well done book to movie! The author wrote the screenplay and was very hands on in the filming. From the special features it's quite clear they thought they had a Harry Potter thing going on with a series of movie. The cast was full of big name actors.

Robbie Coltrane (um...Hagrid anyone)
Damian Lewis (Mjr. Winters in Band of Brothers)
Ewan McGregor (Down with Love, etc...)
Bill Nighy (Pirates 2, Blow Dry)
Mickey Rourke (Sin City)
Alicia Silverstone (Clueless)

Even the teen actor Alex Pettyfer did well. Better than Daniel Radcliffe managed in HP 1...he get's better, but let's be honest, Emma Watson as Hermione made the first movie.

Where did it go wrong? Why did it fail? My best answer- they deliberately kept the film out of American clutches. No big name companies or producers. Which meant the movie was true to the book. But they missed out on the connections Hollywood brings.

I'm torn, would it have been as good if it was filmed in the states instead of in England? If the author wasn't evolved and hadn’t wrote the screenplay? If a team of US screenwriters had hacked it to bits?

No, it probably wouldn't have been a well done movie that visualized the book. My only consolation is the hope that it was better received at home in the UK. I'll keep my fingers crossed for more Alex Rider films to trickle over to Blockbuster's wall.

Note: my DH thought the action scenes were cheesy- but compared to the man movies he's selected they seemed fine to me!