Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Summit Entertainment has acquired screen rights to This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein, a novel by Kenneth Oppel. Summit’s Twilight Saga producer Karen Rosenfelt is aboard to produce. The novel will be published by Simon & Schuster in the summer. The action adventure surrounds young Victor Frankenstein and his attempt to save his twin brother, Konrad, who falls gravely ill. Victor seeks out a mysterious old alchemist who sends Victor and his best friend Elizabeth on a dangerous quest to find three rare ingredients needed to create the Elixir of Life, a fabled serum that will give the drinker perpetual health. There are betrayals along the way and a love triangle between Victor, Elizabeth and Konrad. The book is full of insider references involving Mary Shelley and her original Frankenstein novel, and sets up the subsequent storyline for that famous tale. I’m told that Universal–which has plans to remake its classic Frankenstein film with Guillermo del Toro–was also interested, but Summit’s exec team swooped in. ICM repped the film rights for lit agent Writer’s House.