House of Peculiar Children is the debut novel by American writer Rensom Riggs. The book became a bestseller and received good reviews from critics. The rights to film the novel were soon sold.
The novel "House of Strange Children"
Rensom Riggs grew up in Florida. He began his creative career as a filmmaker, graduating from film school at the University of South Carolina. Already at university, he wrote scripts, shot short videos for the Internet, was the author of several blogs. Then he began collecting old photographs, which later served as the basis for the novel "House of Strange Children". The first literary experience was The Sherlock Holmes Handbook, written for the 2009 film about Sherlock Holmes. Riggs became widely known with the release of his novel "House of Peculiar Children".
The plot of the novel "House of Peculiar Children" is built around old photographs. Rensom Riggs originally proposed his collection of photographs as material for an illustrated book. The editor advised him to use photographs to create the plot of his own novel. To do this, Riggs needed to enter the circle of collectors and collect a few more old photographs.
On the basis of the collected, the plot of the novel appeared. The main character of the book is sixteen-year-old Jacob. His grandfather often talked about his childhood in an orphanage for strange children, which was inhabited by a flying girl, a creature with two tongues, a girl who can hold fire in her hands. Jacob always considered these stories to be fables, but one day the creature from the stories appeared in real life and killed his grandfather. In search of a clue, Jacob travels to Wales, where there is an orphanage for strange children. There he meets children, whom he had previously seen only in photographs, and their guardian, Miss Peregrine.
The novel was published in the summer of 2011. Critics welcomed him warmly, noting the harmonious combination of photography and storytelling. The novel was a great success with the audience. It stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 63 weeks.
The sequel to the novel, entitled Hollow city, was released on January 14, 2014. In it, Jacob and his friends leave Miss Peregrine's orphanage and travel to London. The continuation has not yet been translated into Russian.
Screen adaptation of "House of Strange Children"
The rights to film the novel were purchased in the spring of 2011, even before the book was published, by Fox. The novel will be adapted for screens by renowned screenwriter Jane Goldman, scriptwriter for Stardust, Kick-Ass, X-Men. The director will be the famous Tim Burton. From the cast, only one name is known so far: Eva Green will play Miss Peregrine, the owner of an orphanage for strange children.
Filming will begin in February 2015. The world premiere is set for July 30, 2015. In Russia, the film will be released a day later, on July 30.
