Author Anthony Horowitz remembers warmly the 2006 film version of his first Alex Rider book, remembering the ‘iconic moments’ depicted in the 17-year-old film.
He did, however, recognise the ‘biggest error’ that was made when the movie named Stormbreaker was released, exposing the world to Alex Pettyfer as the famous adolescent agent.
Anthony has long been known for his writing, which includes The Power of Five series, two Sherlock Holmes stories, and volumes in the James Bond franchise.
The 67-year-old spoke to Metro.co.uk about his work and the legacy of one of his most famous characters as the TV adaptation of his Magpie Murders mystery book comes on BBC iPlayer on Saturday, April 1.
Given that I was in my youth when the Stormbreaker film was released, and that I had encountered Anthony as a kid at an Alex Rider book signing, I had to inquire how he felt about the film almost two decades later.
‘The film was a near-miss, that’s the honest truth of it. I think the biggest mistake it made was to come out from the same week as Pirates of the Caribbean 2, which turned out to be one of the biggest box office smashes of the century,’ he recalled.
‘A family that had maybe enough money to go to the cinema once in a week had a choice between two and a half hours of Johnny Depp and millions and millions of pounds of budget, and 96 minutes of Stormbreaker. So I think that did us a lot of harm.’
Nonetheless, he added that he looks back on the film ‘with a great amount of fondness’.
‘I think there are some wonderful things in it. I very much like Alex Pettyfer, his performance, he was a terrific Alex,’ he stated.
‘I think it has some iconic moments in it actually. Whether it’s Damian Lewis hanging upside down from a helicopter chasing Ewan McGregor across the countryside in a BMW, or whether it’s the two kids hanging from their fingertips from The Gherkin. I don’t think it was a bad film at all.’
In hindsight, the author wishes Stormbreaker had been “a little tougher, a little more grown up.”
‘But in the world of film, the difference between failure and success is a blink of an eye,’ he added.
When I mentioned a particular scene in the film – when Alex turns around while carrying a torch, his silhouette exactly mirroring the illustration of the spy on the book covers – Anthony confessed that it was his “favorite moment in the film.”
‘When I saw that I absolutely fell to pieces. I was so delighted,’ he said.
The author is presently working on the third season of the Alex Rider TV series, which stars Otto Farrant and has been available on Amazon Prime Video since 2020.
Anthony revealed to Metro.co.uk that they are in the final two weeks of shooting and plan to release the next batch of episodes later this year.
‘Otto couldn’t be more different in a way to Alex Pettyfer, but he’s also absolutely marvellous and I love the relationship he has with Brenock O’Connor, who plays Tom, his best friend,’ Anthony said.
‘I think one of the decisions that we made at the very beginning was that I would not write the scripts, which was a very good decision. Guy Burt came in and has done a tremendous job, brought what was needed, which was a fresh eye.
‘I’d had my go with Stormbreaker. I felt it was time to sit back and just be an EP [executive producer]. I helped with the scripts and was involved in the construction of them, but he’s done all the work and I couldn’t be happier.’
Magpie Murders is based on Anthony’s 2016 book, which employs a story-within-a-story format and is about the murder of a mystery novelist.
The episodes premiered on BritBox in 2022 before moving to BBC iPlayer in April of this year.
Lesley Manville plays the main character, Susan Ryeland, and Tim McMullan plays investigator Atticus Pünd.
Conleth Hill from Game of Thrones portrays author Alan Conway, and the ensemble also includes Daniel Mays, Alexandros Logothetis, Claire Rushbrook, Jude Hill, and Matthew Beard.
Magpie Murders will be available to watch from Saturday April 1 on BBC iPlayer.
Source My Celebrity Life.