A British children’s book writer hailed as “the next JK Rowling” has landed a multi-film deal with Walt Disney Studios.
Disney has bought the rights to Katherine Rundell’s best selling fantasy series “Impossible Creatures” her publishers Bloomsbury announced today.
The books are set in the fictional world of the Glimouria Archipelago, with the most recent installment, “The Poisoned King,” making Rundell the first British children’s author since the Harry Potter creator to simultaneously reach No. 1 on the children’s book charts in the UK. and America.
Rundell, who is a fellow of St Catherine’s College Oxford and Quondam fellow at All Souls College, has sold more than four million copies worldwide. In 2024 she was awarded both ‘Author of The Year’ and ‘Children’s Book of The Year’ at The British Book Awards.
The “Impossible Creatures” series was initially planned as a trilogy, but was extended to a five-book run earlier this year in two major seven-figure publishing deals with Bloomsbury and Knopf.
The first two books have already sold over one million copies across 34 territories, and Rundell is in discussions to further expand the franchise beyond the five-novel series.
Bloomsbury holds the print, ebook and audio rights exclusively in the UK, Europe and Commonwealth
The Hollywood studio has secured theatrical film and ancillary rights to the “Impossible Creatures” series, with Rundell “central to the creative vision and development of the franchise.”
She will adapt the first two books into feature film screenplays under the Disney Live Action banner and produce alongside her creative partner Charles Collier.
Her London based production company Impossible Films will also begin a “first-look development relationship” with Disney that includes all of Rundell’s current and upcoming literary properties.
Impossible Films will remain based in London and led by Rundell with a team that includes Collier, producer Alexandra Derbyshire ,and Simon Bax, former CFO of Pixar Animation Studios and President of Studio Operations at Fox.
Rundell said: “ Our ambition is to build ‘Glimouria’ and ‘Impossible Creatures’ into a spectacular series of films, so that we can entertain and inspire family audiences across the world.”
Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company. said: “When I read ‘Impossible Creatures,’ I knew it belonged here at Disney. I was immediately drawn into the vibrant world Katherine imagined and the possibilities of what we could do together with this story.
“Written by Katherine herself, these movies are in the best of hands with our Walt Disney Studios team, and I can’t wait to see this tale brought to the screen.”
The deal was brokered by Charles Collier at Chalcot Square Arts and Media Management on behalf of Rundell directly with the team at Walt Disney Pictures led by David Greenbaum, Kal Walthers, Paige Olson and Bill Neuschaefer. Rundell is represented by Chalcot Square and RCW.
Rundell’s other titles include “Super-Infinite,” a biography of the metaphysical poet John Donne, which won the Baillie Gifford Prize for best non-fiction book of the year. Her book about the extinction crisis “The Golden Mole” and her book “Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old And Wise” were also Sunday Times Bestsellers.
