MGM, Akiva Goldsman & Dan Brown Team For Animated Feature Take Of Kids Book ‘Wild Symphony’

Anthony D'Alessandro
·3 min read
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Wild Symphony, the children’s book by No. 1 New York Times best-selling author Dan Brown, is getting a big screen animated feature adaptation from Oscar winner Akiva Goldsman and MGM.

For the first time ever, Brown will adapt his own book for film with Goldsman producing under his Weed Road Pictures with Greg Lessans.

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The movie is pitched as a Fantasia-like musical, with tunes written by Brown. Wild Symphony follows the adventures of Maestro Mouse as he traverses the globe, recruiting an orchestra like no other. The project is the first under Weed Road’s first look film deal with MGM.

Said Goldsman, “I’m so excited to join up with my old friend Dan Brown and my older friend Mike Deluca and company to bring this marvelous book of Dan’s to the screen.”

Said Brown, “As a young child, I was absolutely enthralled by the film Fantasia and its magical fusion of animation and classical music. In many ways, my lifetime love of classical music began with film, and so I’m especially excited to be working with such talented partners to bring Wild Symphony to life in the form of an animated feature.”

Brown is the author behind The Da Vinci Code universe, that novel being one of the best-selling of all-time, published in 56 languages with over 200 million copies in print. The book was adapted into a 2006 feature which grossed over $760M WW. A 2016 feature take of Brown’s Inferno centering around the Robert Langdon character played by Tom Hanks grossed another $220M WW. Brown was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by TIME Magazine, whose editors credited him with “keeping the publishing industry afloat; renewed interest in Leonardo da Vinci and early Christian history; spiking tourism to Paris and Rome; a growing membership in secret societies; the ire of Cardinals in Rome; eight books denying the claims of the novel and seven guides to read along with it; a flood of historical thrillers; and a major motion picture franchise.” Brown is represented by Heide Lange of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, and Eric S. Brown Law.

Goldsman is the Oscar winning writer behind 2002’s A Beautiful Mind, which counted a total of four Academy Awards including Best Picture. His feature credits include Cinderella Man, I, Robot, The Da Vinci Code, and I Am Legend, among others. On the television side Goldsman, who also has a first-look deal with MGM Television, was an EP on WGN’s Underground. He is also a co-creator and EP of Paramount+’s Star Trek: Picard and DC’s Titans. At Weed Road Pictures, Lessans has been re-upped as President of Production and Rachel Reznick has been promoted to VP. Additionally, Shiva Nassab and Sari Greenberg have recently joined as creative executives, from Lionsgate and Aggregate respectively.

Goldsman is represented by Barry Littman and Steve Warren at Hansen, Jacobson, Teller. As a producer and director, he is represented by CAA.

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