Filmstalker: H.I.V.E. is evil Harry Potter

Paramount have just bought rights to the a book called H.I.V.E. by Mark Walden that Amazon describes as:

H.I.V.E. (Higher Institute of Villainous Education) is a top secret school of applied villainy where children with a precocious talent for wrongdoing are sent to develop their talents into criminal mastermind. After all, 'villains have the best lines and wear the best costumes'. One small catch is that the children cannot leave until training is complete, six years later. With villainy comes a certain freedom of thought, and every year one student in particular will show exceptional talent - after all, it takes the best to produce the worst. This year there are two students: Otto Malpense and his new friend Wing Fanchu are both exceptionally bad, and they are definitely not keen on being held against their will for six long years.

The view from Cinematical is that it's going to end up quite Potter-esque but on the other side of the fence, as Paramount want to make this an evil kids family film franchise!

Personally I think this is going to turn into an evil version of Sky High, franchise or not. You can just hear the one liner sell, "Sky High meets Harry Potter, but it's all with evil kids. Imagine a kids only version of T.H.R.U.S.H. from the U.N.C.L.E. series." Okay, that's maybe why I'm not selling films!

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I may sound a little bit self-righteous here but what I dont understand is why isnt there any books out there that later can be adapted to a film that actually teaches children good values? Why does it always have to be evil, I can hear it now, because since when does goodness equal to entertainment? Even the videogames that kids are so addicted to have got violence written all over it, no wonder the new criminals are our younger people. The movie industry is not being responsible at all in this regard, and why would they be when at the end of the day, it's all money they truly care about.

Posted by: Simone | April 1, 2006 6:02 PM

Hey Simone - I understand your speculation on how so much is evil or violent. Fact is, just as sex sells so do does violence. I have to admit I love stories with a good villian; I don't think there is enough of them. I enjoy actions films, but a lot of them have less than worthy villians.

I think this movie sounds like a lot of fun, but we'll see how much of a family film they make it into. It's hard for me to imagine that a movie about villians without a message will actually be made and released.

Posted by: Meli | April 4, 2006 3:49 AM

Its different if youre already an adult I guess, you are able to discern more (let's hope some can!) but for children, it can be a bit difficult, dont you think?

Posted by: Simone | April 4, 2006 10:16 PM

Does anybody know about auditions for this film because it sounds quite fun?!

Posted by: Shana | April 8, 2006 11:45 AM