I watched as the Disney organization plodded its way through bouncing this thing back and forth not knowing what to do with it. 'I pulled it away from Disney because to be very honest I did that deal because I was working with two men who I liked immensely and they swore to me they were not going anywhere and of course two months later they were gone. Although Barker had five books planned, as of 2011, he has only completed the first three. Barker had already completed two books by that time ('Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War' was published in 2004) and seemed a little discouraged by the dissolution of the Disney project. Barker and Disney were clearly not a good match.īy 2006, it was clear that Disney simply didn't know what to do with 'Abarat.' On September 11, it was reported that Barker and Disney were splitting apart and that 'Abarat' was no longer going to be the Next Big Thing, or indeed Anything At All. I hope that the success of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, which didn't pull any punches in terms of its horrific elements, and the last Harry Potter movie will encourage the studio not to sanitize Clive's material.' I have great faith in the whole grim-fairy-tale attitude about what these stories can be, and I believe that children can handle darker stories than we give them credit for.

'We're obviously trying to design the movie for a broad audience, but I'm hoping that the darker aspects won't get completely removed.

Arabat book