Director David Cunningham ("The Path to 9/11") will helm fantasy epic "The Dark Is Rising" for Walden Media and 20th Century Fox reports Variety.
Part of a five-book series by Susan Cooper, "The Dark Is Rising" focuses on a youth who discovers at age 11 that he's a Sign Seeker, last of a group of immortals dedicated to fighting a growing presence of dark forces. He comes to the realization that he's charged with saving the world.
Cunningham has already headed to Romania, where he'll prep the film for an early 2007 start and a September 28th release. The studios hope to launch a major kiddie fantasy franchise along "Narnia" lines.
