Tomas Alfredson directing steampunk Larklight

Larklight

Let The Right One In director Tomas Alfredson may be hard at work on his first English-language flick Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy , but he’s also lined up another book adap in the form of Larklight .

A young adult novel by Philip Reeve, Larklight is set in an alternate universe where space travel was invented during Victorian times. It’s a steampunk adventure following a rambling house called Larklight that is travelling through space.

Aboard the house are Art, his sister Myrtle, and their father. When giant white spiders seek to take over the universe - beginning with Larklight - the siblings must stop them.

It’s certainly a different direction for Aldredson, not only after his adap of John Le Carre’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy , but also following his renowned, game-changing vampire flick. With Larklight obviously involving some serious special effects, it’s looking like a big tentpole flick for Warner Bros - another first for Alfredson.

The ‘out there’ plot has us scratching our heads, but screenwriter Steve Knight ( Eastern Promises ) gives us hope for something sinewy as well as visually arresting.

Most interesting, though, should be the character of space pirate Jack Havock, whose crew includes a human-sized blue lizard and a gigantic land crab. We bet actors all over Hollywood are picking up the phone to their agents right now…

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.