Writer's hope books could become film franchise
Rayner Tapia won the Pinnacle Book Achievement award for Science Fiction with the Last Enchantment beating writers across the Americas - Credit: Archant
A writer has expressed her joy at how “a woman from north Wembley” could see her books become material for a blockbuster film.
Rayner Tapia, who has lived in Brent for 25 years, has had contact from producers about turning her five-part The Adventures of Tom McGuire series into a big screen franchise.
“I got a phone call saying we would like to turn your books into a movie and I thought it must be a wind up,” she said.
“But I did some research and they really were LA-based producers.”
The mother-of-three self published the first in the Tom McGuire series in 2009. The books follow the story of a 10-year-old boy’s discovery of magical worlds.
Since the onset of illness in 2013, Rayner threw herself into writing and has garnered a loyal following for her sci-fi and adventure novels.
Author Rayner Tapia with Cllr Michael Adeyeye, Mayor of Brent. - Credit: Archant
Pinnacle Book Achievement award for Science Fiction with the Last Enchantment, her fourth book in the series. The Dream Catcher, another of her works, was the NABE Pinnacle Book Achievement winner in 2012 for the category for the Best Juvenile Fiction Book 2012.
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“I could not believe the news,” she said of the phone call in 2018. “Having a film is the pinnacle for any writer, it is what we always dream about.”
She has since worked on a script for the first film with screen writer Sarah Katz.
“We worked in conjunction and she is a lovely lady,” said Rayner. “I wanted to be part of the process, to see it come together rather than it just be taken over.”
The pandemic has seen the project stall with initial investors pulling out. However, other companies have expressed an interest and Rayner said she is on the phone every day.
Far from being in the dreaded development hell, the purgatory stage where a film project has interest but remains unfinanced, Rayner says she is “very confident” it will be released.
If and when Tom McGuire does reach screens, it will cap a remarkable journey for Rayner who was also nominated for the Circle of Honour Ring of Books Award 2017 for three of her books.
She added: “I sometimes can’t believe this has all happened to me, I’m just a woman from north Wembley, it doesn’t happen to people like me!”
