The boy detective is looking to solve the mysteries of Hollywood.
Encyclopedia Brown has been optioned by Warner Brothers for the big-screen treatment.
The iconic book series is written by Donald J. Sobol and while it’s not exactly genre, the series of 28 novels are probably favorites of several generations of geeks.
Encyclopedia Brown is the nickname of Leroy Brown, the son of a local police chief, who runs his own detective agency out of the family’s garage. The books featured Brown, often with his friend and “bodyguard” Sally Kimball, solving various petty crimes, often committed by the local bully Bugs Meany.
Sobol began the book series in 1963 and continued writing them until his death in 2012. Each novel had ten mysteries with various presented clues for readers and Brown to solve. The short stories ended with Brown announcing he’d solved the crime and then giving readers the chance to figure out how he had based on the clues. The solutions were presented by flipping to the back of the book.
Hollywood has intermittently tried to bring Brown to the screen, without much success. Deutsch, who has controlled the screen rights since 1979, produced a short-lived TV series for HBO in 1989.
The studio and producers are now out to writers for a take on how to turn the books into a film and potential franchise.
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