Next month, another wildly popular fantasy series makes the jump from print to the big screen. Following in the footsteps of Harry Potter, Twilight, and the Inheritance Cycle comes The Lightning Thief. Based on the first book in Rick Riordan’s bestselling Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, the film arrives in movie theaters on February 12, with an all-star cast that includes Pierce Brosman, Steve Coogan, Rosario Dawson, Catherine Keener, and Uma Thurman, with Logan Lerman starring as Percy. The Fox 2000 film is directed by Chris Columbus, who directed the first two Potter films.
On the publishing side, Disney Book Group released a hardcover deluxe edition of The Lightning Thief back in November, as well as a hardcover boxed set of the entire series, packaged in a “steamer trunk” box with hidden compartment. And this month, the publisher released a paperback edition of The Lightning Thief with movie tie-in cover art as well as Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Ultimate Guide. The latter is an illustrated manual to the monsters, gods, characters, and other details of Percy’s world, and includes trading cards, maps, and other artwork.
U.S. sales for the five-book Percy Jackson series have topped seven million copies; the fifth and final book was released in May 2009. And although Riordan’s next project is the Kane Chronicles series, which will launch this spring, the first book in a Percy Jackson spinoff series centered around Camp Half Blood is being prepped for a fall 2010 release.
