Derek Landy facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Derek Landy
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Landy in Edinburgh, August 2011
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| Born | 23 October 1974 Lusk, County Dublin, Ireland |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Genre | Children's fantasy |
| Notable works | Skulduggery Pleasant and Demon Road series |
| Notable awards | Red House Children's Book Award 2008 Skulduggery Pleasant |
Derek Landy (born 23 October 1974) is an Irish author and screenwriter, known for the Skulduggery Pleasant and Demon Road book series. Since 2018, he has also written numerous comic book series at Marvel Comics.
Career
Landy has written two screenplays that have been made into films, the IFTA award-winning Dead Bodies and the IFTA-nominated Boy Eats Girl starring Samantha Mumba. Landy himself was nominated for an IFTA for Best Script.
Frustrated with the collaborative process of filmmaking, Landy moved on to writing the Skulduggery Pleasant series, starting with the novel of the same name. The novel was published by HarperCollins, who paid £1.8 million for the publishing rights, growing to comprise a nine-book series, a six-book sequel series, a spin-off, and a prequel, with a third (three-book) series in development.
In 2007, he signed a deal with Warner Bros. worth an estimated US$1.1 million for the rights to adapt his Skulduggery Pleasant series, which he intended to adapt himself. However, his script was constantly rewritten and Landy, unhappy with the results, bought back the rights. He sold the rights to another company which could not make it, then worked with another company that "petered out". As of 2020, he was working on an adaptation with an undisclosed film making company.
Landy is a fan of Joss Whedon's works, notably Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series. He is also a fan of Gilmore Girls and Doctor Who.
Landy wrote a short story based on the Tenth Doctor from Doctor Who as part of a short story collection celebrating the show's 50th anniversary. The story was published by Puffin in 2013, titled "The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage". Landy was consequentially hired to write an episode for the second series of the Doctor Who spinoff Class, only for the series to be cancelled before the episode he wrote could be produced.
Personal life
Landy attended Drogheda Grammar School during his childhood years, and later studied animation at Ballyfermot College. He also has a black belt in kenpo karate. Prior to his contract with HarperCollins, he worked on his parents' vegetable farm. Since 2016, he has been dating Laura Jordan, a fellow writer from Sittingbourne, Kent, with the couple living in Rush, Dublin.
See also
In Spanish: Derek Landy para niños
