Steven Spielberg Has a Clue–Actually 39 Clues

Hide the children–the marketing onslaught is beginning.

Variety reports that Dreamworks has picked up the rights to 39 Clues, an adventure series to be published by Scholastic Media. Steven Spielberg is planning on directing; a screenwriter will be selected in the coming weeks.

The 39 Clues is an ambitious multimedia project to be launched by Scholastic on September 9th. It’s a ten book series that will be released over two years, with accompanying collectible cards and an online game, all providing clues that readers will use to try to solve a mystery for a $10,000 grand prize. Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) has outlined the story for the whole ten book group and wrote the first one, The Maze of Bones. Variety describes the books:

The focus of “The 39 Clues” is the most powerful family in the world, the Cahills, who count Napoleon and Houdini among their relatives. Readers will be challenged to discover the source of the family’s powers, revealed through 39 clubs that are hidden around the world and scattered throughout history…The adventure kicks off with the death of Cahill clan matriarch Grace, who changes her will at the last moment, giving her descendants the choice between $1 million or a clue.

Dreamworks co-chair/CEO Stacey Snider, who will produce with Spielberg and Scholastic Media president Deborah Forte, is duly excited. She said:

“There is enough material here for three or four movies. Steven is very involved and passionate. This excites me as an executive but also as a mother. It is an educational, challenging interactive experience that hits kids where they live.”

Three or four movies, provided the first one doesn’t do a Golden Compass. 

It’s impossible to understate how important this project is to Scholastic. Remember, Scholastic is the US publisher of the Harry Potter books and they’re desperately looking for something to take the place of the Harry Potter books (at least until, as many predict, JK Rowling begins to miss having people talk about her and starts writing the expected HP prequels). The Harry Potter books will no doubt continue to be steady performers for a while, but Scholastic is going to badly miss the the annual huge bang they’ve been getting with the release of the next book in the series. The 39 Clues is an attempt to at least try to recreate some of that excitement; having Spielberg’s imprimatur certainly helps.

Mr. Spielberg isn’t exactly sitting around flying paper airplanes while this project gets itself together. Aside from the little matter of sorting out Dreamworks status as an indie studio or not, he’s also sharing Tintin duties with Peter Jackson, and prepping an Abraham Lincoln biography, with Liam Neeson starring.