Moone Boy Landing For Macmillan

Credit Intl Emmy Awards

If you were like myself and fell in love with the Irish comedy ‘Moone Boy’ then you will also be delighted to hear that Macmillan Children’s Books announced that they have acquired two ‘Moone Boy’ novels written by Hollywood actor and star of The IT Crowd, Chris O’Dowd and screenwriter Nick Vincent Murphy.

Beating four other publishers in a hotly contested auction, Venetia Gosling, Publisher for Over 6s at Macmillan Children’s Books, has bought World Rights, including ebook and audio, in two novels from Robert Kirby at United Agents LLP, in association with Casarotto Ramsay & Associates, for a substantial six figure sum. The first book will publish autumn 2014.

The ‘Moone Boy’ story began with a 2010 comedy short for Sky 1 HDs Little Crackers, which lead on to a six-part series for Sky 1 HD. The story of 11-year-old Martin Moone and his chaotic family living in Boyle in Co Roscommon, Ireland, it is a semi-autobiographical story based on Chris O’Dowd’s family structure, and uses both Chris and Nick Vincent Murphy’s childhood experiences of growing up in rural Ireland. The first series was recognized by the Irish Film and Television Awards as ‘Best Entertainment Programme’ and Chris was nominated for ‘Best Supporting Actor – TV’ and ‘Best Script Drama’. Additionally, the show was nominated for ‘Best New Comedy Programme’ by the British Comedy Awards and it just won an International Emmy 2013 in the category of ‘Best Comedy’ on 25th November 2013 in New York.

The Moone Boy books will be new funny illustrated fiction for 8+ readers about Martin and his friend Sean – who is not your everyday school mate, but an imaginary friend with a lot of questionable advice about how Martin should negotiate the various obstacles of day-to-day life as an 11-year-old, whether contending with his sisters’ pranks, facing up to school bullies or dealing with the pressures of being an altar boy. This unusual friendship often leads to hilarious consequences and, more frequently, mildly amusing ones too.

The books will feature line illustrations and doodles by Cartoon Saloon, the Kilkenny-based Academy Award-nominated animation studio behind the animations on the Moone Boy TV series. They will also work with Macmillan to create the series cover look.

Venetia Gosling says,

“I’m over the moon to have acquired these two Moone Boy novels from Chris O’Dowd and Nick Vincent Murphy. I loved the first Moone Boy TV series and saw immediately how well the characters and scenarios could work in book form; Chris and Nick’s writing is so warm and funny, with such a strong sense of family and community, that I know these stories will hold huge appeal for all ages and I’m very excited to be part of the team introducing Moone Boy to readers both here and abroad.”

Chris O’Dowd and Nick Vincent Murphy first met while at university and worked on several theatre projects together – although, confusingly, they weren’t in the same university and neither of them was actually studying theatre. Nevertheless, they collaborated on productions of Death of a Salesman and Faust, and in the years after college, they kept in touch as they pursued their respective careers in acting and screenwriting. When Nick moved to London in 2008, the pair began working intensively together again, and when an opportunity arose to make a short film for Sky’s Little Crackers series, they jumped at the chance. Soon after it was broadcast, Sky asked the pair to develop the short into a TV series, and they began work on what would become Moone Boy. Whether working together in Chris’ garden shed (and the occasional pub), or working apart on opposite sides of the world, depending on film commitments, they have written three series of Moone Boy together, and are now incredibly excited to be collaborating once again on this new adventure into the world of books. 

Chris and Nick say,

“Throughout the first three series of Moone Boy, it’s often occurred to us that there’s so much more we could do with the world of the imaginary friends, but the hassle of having to film things with our big clumsy cameras made it tricky to delve too much into it in the show. However, this feels like the perfect world in which to explore novels for a younger audience, with plenty of opportunities for fun doodles and illustrations by Cartoon Saloon. There will be lots of jokes and we hope that parents will want to steal the books from their children to read them too. We’re really excited to be working with Macmillan – Venetia and her team are the perfect match for us, and we can’t wait to get started. We also think it’s really nice of them to allow our families to move into their offices, it seemed like an odd invitation at the time, but we’re all very excited. Unless we misheard what they said about that detail.”

Macmillan plans a global publication event in autumn 2014, backed by a significant on- and off-line marketing and PR campaign. The second novel will follow in 2015.