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Chris Columbus has only directed two movies in the last eleven years, but he’s now looking to return to the genre that gave him the biggest hits of his career. As per Deadline, the filmmaker is developing an episodic House of Secrets adaptation for Disney Plus, based on the novel he co-wrote with the late Ned Vizzini.
The plot revolves around Cordelia, Brendan and Eleanor Walker, who move into an old and creepy home once owned by occult novelist Denver Kristoff. The author’s daughter arrives on the scene and claims to be the Wind Witch, destroying the family’s new abode and trapping the kids in a a trio of fantastical universes based on Kristoff’s work, tasking them to find The Book of Doom and Desire so that they can escape their fate and return to their own world.
Having directed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and sequel Chamber of Secrets, as well as Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Columbus is well-versed in the art of big budget effects-driven fantasy derived from popular books geared towards a young adult audience, and the fact he helped create the source material should ensure he gives House of Secrets his full and undivided attention.
It was his time at the helm of Harry Potter than initially inspired him to work on the book, having witnessed the franchise become a global phenomenon once he brought it into live-action, while House of Secrets was once pegged for a three-film series a few years back that never came to fruition. It’s a neat concept, and one that contains plenty of potential to be a major success for Disney Plus.