It takes a little bit longer to get some novels onto the big screen than others. For example, Ender's Game was published more than two decades ago, and its feature adaptation is finally set to be released next year. And then there are books that sell the movie rights before they're even published. Such is the case for Dan Krokos' The Planet Thieves, which also happens to be a a young adult sci-fi novel, but won't hit shelves until next spring.
According to Deadline, Warner Brothers has acquired the screen rights to the story, listing the description for The Planet Thieves as follows:
The book focuses on a young space cadet who finds himself caught in the middle of Earth’s struggle to survive. His ship is attacked by an alien race bent on gaining control of a weapon they’re carrying on board.
It's hard to get much of an idea of what the main character is all about from that description, but it sounds like there's an adventure element there and an exciting one, especially when factoring in the hostile-sounding aliens. The story was apparently pitched to the studio as "Harry Potter set in space." That's a big sell, given the popularity and success of J.K. Rowling's fantasy novels and the movies that followed, and it's not easy to connect the description mentioned above with the Harry Potter story, but I'll admit, that mention has me more intrigued. .
The Planet Thieves isn't set to be published until Mary 2013 (Amazon doesn't even have it available for pre-order yet), but Dan Krokos does have a recently published novel called False Memory, for those interested in sampling his writing in anticipation of The Planet Thieves.
