“Suddenly, one day, I almost felt Jacob Reckless was standing behind me in my garden.” “I’m not used to projects dying,” said Funke, who had a hard time letting go of the world she and Wigram had created. Wigram filled the void creatively when he asked Funke to collaborate with him on an adventurous interpretation of “The Nutcracker.” But after eight months of almost daily “intellectual pugilism” in person whenever the two were in the same city and via Skype the many days they weren’t, that project came to an end when they learned a musical, big-screen version of “The Nutcracker” was in the works. Funke had just lost her husband of 27 years to cancer. The two started working together the following day. I’ve done quite well without it so far,” said Funke, a native of western Germany who, since 2005, has been living in Beverly Hills in a home formerly owned by Faye Dunaway.įunke met Wigram at a dinner in 2006. I never would have thought I’d work on a novel with somebody. “I would never have looked at a movie producer as a creative writing partner. An interdisciplinary super duo of the most fantastical kind, Funke, who has sold more than 15 million books worldwide, partnered with Lionel Wigram, executive producer of some of the blockbuster Harry Potter films and former Warner Bros.’ vice president of production, to write the new series. Most significant, “Reckless” is the first time Funke has ever collaborated on a book. with a theatrical storytelling event, including a stop at the Brentwood Theater in Los Angeles on Saturday. The first time Funke will do an international webcast to be screened at live events around the globe (10:30 a.m. It is the first time a Funke book will be simultaneously released in 12 countries.

With an initial worldwide print run exceeding 1 million copies, “Reckless” is the first in a series for readers 10 and older about two brothers lured through a mirror into a world populated with dwarves and fairies and gargoyles.Īnd it is a first in many other ways as well.

Much like Meggie and the other characters in her Inkworld trilogy, the 51-year-old author of fantasies for middle-schoolers is a self-described “book maniac,” whose writing room is ringed with the works that have helped her research - and the string of books that research has helped yield: “Dragon Rider,” “The Thief Lord” and now “Reckless,” which will be released on Tuesday. A sliding ladder leads to an upper tier of titles, next to a closet that is also chock-full of hardcovers and paperbacks. Her desk is cluttered with tomes about fairy tales, which are stacked next to those about mining, alongside travel guides for Spain, France and England. Tucked in the back of a lush garden exploding with flowers, Cornelia Funke’s study is a wonderland of books.

Reckless book cornelia funke