The Spiderwick Chronicles

[robster16]

Your field guide to a world of fantasy. #TheSpiderwickChronicles, a new live-action Original Series based on the best-selling books, is coming to #DisneyPlus.



https://twitter.com/disneyplus/status/1 ... 6698905601

[Sotiris]

More info about the series.

Disney+ announced a new live-action series, "The Spiderwick Chronicles," a modern coming-of-age story combined with fantasy adventure from Paramount Television Studios and 20th Television, one of the Disney Television Studios. The series, based on the beloved, best-selling books, follows the Grace Family—twin brothers Jared and Simon, their sister Mallory and mother Helen—as they move into their dilapidated ancestral home. They begin to unravel a dark mystery about their great-great Uncle who once discovered the secret and sometimes dangerous faerie world.

Source: https://dmedmedia.disney.com/news/disne ... y-plus-day

[Sotiris]

Updates.

“The Spiderwick Chronicles” Disney+ Series Casting For Its Lead Characters
https://whatsondisneyplus.com/the-spide ... haracters/

‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’: Kat Coiro To Direct First Two Episodes Of Disney+ Series
https://deadline.com/2022/05/the-spider ... 235020684/

Christian Slater To Star As Mulgarath In ‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’ Disney+ Series
https://deadline.com/2022/08/christian- ... 235098737/

‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’: Lyon Daniels & Noah Cottrell To Star As Jared & Simon In Disney+ Series
https://deadline.com/2022/08/the-spider ... 235099149/

‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’: Momona Tamada & Alyvia Alyn Lind Join Disney+ Series As Recurring
https://deadline.com/2022/11/the-spider ... 235168058/

‘Spiderwick Chronicles’ Disney+ Series Casts Joy Bryant
https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/spider ... 235354894/

‘Spiderwick Chronicles’ Disney+ Series Rounds Out Main Cast With Mychala Lee
https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/spider ... 235372687/

‘Shazam’ Star Jack Dylan Grazer Joins ‘Spiderwick Chronicles’ Series at Disney+
https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/shazam ... 235462382/

[Sotiris]

Disney has cancelled the show and won't release it on the platform, even though all the episodes have been completed.

‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’ Not Going Forward At Disney+ As Part Of Content Cost-Cutting & Strategy Shift; Being Shopped By Paramount TV Studios
https://deadline.com/2023/08/the-spider ... 235528689/

[Patricier21]

Disney has cancelled the show and won't release it on the platform, even though all the episodes have been completed.

‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’ Not Going Forward At Disney+ As Part Of Content Cost-Cutting & Strategy Shift; Being Shopped By Paramount TV Studios
https://deadline.com/2023/08/the-spider ... 235528689/

Well, well, I guess race swapping doesn’t pay!

[Sotiris]

‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’ TV Series Lands At Roku After Disney+ Exit
https://deadline.com/2023/10/the-spider ... 235567910/

[PatchofBlue]

Good for them. Glad they found a home after all this, but given outside the Disney umbrella, I don't know how much coverage this show will find, and so it does kind of feel like they've just found a resting place ...

[PatchofBlue]

https://collider.com/spiderwick-chronic ... s-trailer/

I can actually distantly understand why Disney wouldn't want this on their service: it does look slightly creepy. I'm personally intrigued, but I suddenly get why Disney wouldn't know what to do with this show.

Doesn't mean I think it was very nice of them to just drop the show, though.

[Sotiris]

Teaser poster, main poster, teaser trailer, and main trailer.

The Spiderwick Chronicles showrunner discusses the differences between the books, film, and TV series
https://ew.com/the-spiderwick-chronicle ... es-8634338

The Spiderwick Chronicles showrunner weighs in on that 'tense' season finale cliffhanger
https://ew.com/the-spiderwick-chronicle ... er-8634349

The Spiderwick Chronicles boss reveals a secret character is hidden in plain sight
https://ew.com/the-spiderwick-chronicle ... rm-8634318

[PatchofBlue]

Finished the first season last night, and I think there's some good stuff here, enough that I'd be willing to follow it across multiple seasons.

I enjoyed the books, and the movie, when I was a kid, but I don't think I was ever as obsessed with this property as I was Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, or even Eragon. (I don't think I ever actually owned the books.) But from what I can remember of the source material, they had some very interesting jumping off points. They obviously decided earlier on that the structure of the books didn't really lend themselves to normal page-to-screen adaptation, so they chose more or less to start from scratch using established characters and mythology as a starting point, while dropping in specific moments and motifs from the book as they became available. I think the more freestyle approach really helped give characters like Helen, Mulgarath, and Lucinda a lot more to do, which I think made for a stronger product.

Christian Slater absolutely stole the show as Mulgarath. Endlessly charismatic and deliciously wicked when the moment called for it. I also really liked the girl playing Mallory.

I had mixed feelings about aging up the kids, but I think that the darker fantasy aesthetic was really fun, like a desaturated Pan's Labyrinth.

I'll admit the show didn't quite live up to all the promises it was making. I get the feeling that this show was struck down with the normal case of "first season gets like $2 per episode, and if people like it we'll give them more next season" because for a show centered on magical creatures, there were very few magical creatures displayed, which I found a little underwhelming. The whole conceit of the pages being scattered around town and being guarded by some quest-puzzle also felt entirely incidental since very little of the show was about that.

All around, the finished product felt a little disorganized, but there was enough here that I'd be willing to see the showrunners get another go at the material.

I can kind of understand why Disney would have dropped the show, though. While I wouldn't call the show "dark" (about on level with like the first season of Stranger Things, maybe slightly lighter), it did feel like it crossed a certain threshold of what Disney wants their entertainment brand to be. I'm glad it found a home after all, though, and hope it finds success here.

[Sotiris]

‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’ Has Record Debut Weekend As Roku Channel’s Most-Watched On Demand Title Ever
https://deadline.com/2024/04/the-spider ... 235893970/

[PatchofBlue]

Disney Scrapped Their Show. An Unlikely Champion Saved It.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/25/arts ... -roku.html

The series originated at Apple TV+ more than five years ago, with Barry Sonnenfeld attached to direct. When Sonnenfeld left in 2020, Coleite replaced him — somewhat reluctantly, at first, because he recently had made a different magical Victorian house series: “Locke and Key” for Netflix. But by the time “Spiderwick” moved to Disney, Coleite had fallen in love with the show, and, as far as he could tell, Disney felt the same way.

“We were called a home run by the executives,” he said. Which is why the sudden cancellation came as such a shock.

“I thought I had experienced every type of pain there was imaginable as a writer,” he said. “I have sold pilots that didn’t get into production. I’ve made pilots that didn’t go to series. But here was something completely new, where we could finish an entire series, be done with it, and they could say no, now it’s a tax write-off, and no one is ever going to see this again. It’s really a cynical practice, to devalue the work of artists that make them profit.”

Ahead of the show’s debut, Coleite worried that the Disney cancellation would lead critics and viewers to assume that “if Disney didn’t want it, there must be something wrong with it.” He said that he actively combated that idea, reaching out to journalists to challenge headlines he considered misleading and messaging people on social media when they posted something untrue.

“I know everyone loves a failure in Hollywood, but that’s not the case with this story,” he added. “This was not a reject by Disney. That’s not why it was canceled.”

The show’s performance thus far “delivered results beyond expectations,” Coleite wrote in an email on Wednesday. “I am overwhelmed and appreciative of the audience’s response.”

One more time ...

But here was something completely new, where we could finish an entire series, be done with it, and they could say no, now it’s a tax write-off, and no one is ever going to see this again. It’s really a cynical practice, to devalue the work of artists that make them profit.”