Fox Animation bought the rights to the children’s book, The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy. The Hollywood Reporter also reports that Chernin Entertainment, the studio which produced Rise of the Planet of the Apes for Fox, will produce. Clearly, animated fairy tales are far from dead.
The 448-page children’s book was barely released today on May 1, but apparently Fox already sees in it potential for an animated family adventure. The book tells the story of four “Prince Charmings”—Prince Liam, Prince Frederic, Prince Duncan and Prince Gustav—who are the rescuers of Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White and Rapunzel, respectively. But their worlds change when the princes are collectively rejected by their once-upon-a-time damsel-in-distress princesses and they are banished from their castles. When they discover an evil plot that threatens their kingdoms, they now must learn to become real heros by battling trolls, dragons, bandits, witches and all sorts of terrors along the way.
From the synopsis, Hero’s Guide seems exciting. It seems to answer the question of “what happened after ‘happily ever after’” in a rather unexpected way. I can hardly imagine this being a serious film, but more of a comedy parody of fairy tales like the Shrek series. It has potential to be a break-out hit like DreamWorks’ medieval children’s book adaptations How To Train Your Dragon and Shrek.
Obviously the book is in early stages of development, so it may be three to four years before we actually see the film on the silver screen. Until then, we’ll keep you updated on any developments. Are you excited to see Fox adapt this book? Let us know in the comments.
