Inkheart is the name of a fantasy novel by Cornelia Funke that is aimed toward children and young adults, and the first novel in the Inkworld trilogy. Funke is a German author of children’s fiction that has won multiple awards for her work on the Inkworld trilogy, leading many to describe her as the German J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series. While her books are extremely popular in Germany, they have also been translated into English and are becoming more and more popular in the United States.

The plot of Inkheart focuses on twelve-year-old Meggie Folchart who realizes that her father, Mortimer, has the magical ability to bring characters from books into the real world by reading aloud. This unusual ability takes Meggie and Mo on many adventures throughout the world, particularly Europe, and allows them to meet several unusual and fantastic characters. On January 23, 2009, a film adaptation of Inkheart will be released in the United States and Canada. Eliza Bennett and Brendan Fraser will star as Meggie and Mo, while actors Paul Bettany, Rafi Gavron, Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, and others will play several of the characters that come out of the books. Director Iain Softley, known for such films as 2005’s The Skeleton Key, will direct the film.

One night, as twelve-year-old Meggie Folchart listens to the rain, a stranger approaches her house. The man is an acquaintance of Meggie’s father, Mortimer, and his name is Dustfinger. The reason for his visit is to warn Mortimer that somebody is searching for him, causing the three of him to leave the home, even though Meggie and Mortimer have not been there long due to the fact that are constantly moving. They depart to Italy, where Meggie learns that she and her father are fleeing a mysterious man named Capricorn. Meggie and Mo will live with her mother’s aunt Elinor, even though Meggie has never seen her mother. Meggie seeks solace in the strange transition through books, but despite the fact that Mortimer, who works as a bookbinder, and Meggie both love books, Mo refuses to read aloud to her.

While Meggie and Mo are staying at Elinor’s house, Capricorn’s men come and take Mo to Capricorn’s village as Dustfinger entertains Meggie, a move that eventually turns out to entail Dustfinger betraying Mo in order to save himself. Perhaps swayed by his guilt, Dustfinger joins Meggie and Elinor on a quest to follow Mo and his captor in order to return Mo to Elinor’s house and to keep him out of Capricorn’s grasp. Mo’s captor is an evil servant of Capricorn named Basta and he will not easily let Mo go. Meggie eventually learns that the reason her father never read aloud to her is because Mo has the strange power to read characters in and out of books, and that in a freak accident, Mo sent Meggie’s mother into the book Inkworld and brought Capricorn, Basta, Dustfinger, and Gwin out of the book. Although Mo eventually chases away all of the villains and attempts for several years to read his wife, Theresa, out of Inkworld and into the real world, he fails, and must live life with Meggie constantly on the move. Capricorn wants to use Mo’s powers to further his own evil plot, and in order to avoid being caught by Capricorn, Mo and Meggie must always keep moving.

Capricorn gets the leg up on Mo by capturing Meggie, Elinor, and Dustfinger, intending to use them as hostages in order to force Mo to read aloud. Despite fearing the repercussions of his reading, Mo agrees to do as Capricorn bids, with the stipulation that he will only read if he is holding Meggie. This is because he cannot read Meggie into the book world as long as he is touching her, and he would rather not have a situation similar to the one he faced with his wife Theresa. Mo successfully reads a passage from Treasure Island, filling the room with gold, but when he reads a passage from One Thousands and One Nights, all that emerges from the book is a boy named Farid. Swayed by his remorse at betraying Mo and realizing how drastic of a mistake he made, Dustfinger helps to free Meggie, Mo, and Elinor. Meggie convinces Dustfinger to bring along Farid, and the five of them steal one of Capricorn’s cars in order to get away. The crew speeds away to the Italian Coast where they begin to formulate a plan to put an end to Capricorn’s evil plots. Mo realizes that the only way to stop Capricorn is to find a copy of Inkworld and read Capricorn and Basta back into the book, and in order to do so, he must find the author of the book, Fenoglio.

When the crew finally finds Fenoglio, they discover that he lives in a small village. Although Dustfinger is horrified to learn that he is actually a character from a novel and that he is slated to die at the end of the book in the original plot, Fenoglio seems like he will help Mo. Unfortunately, he and Meggie are captured by Basta, who brings them back to Capricorn’s village to use them as bait. Mo and the rest of his entourage sneak back to Capricorn’s village, where they try to figure out how to save Meggie. Meanwhile, Meggie discovers that she has the same powers as her father and can also be used by Capricorn to aid him in his evil plot. Together with the rest of the characters from Inkheart, as well as with her father and Fenoglio, Maggie figures out a way to thwart Capricorn’s plans through the clever usage of her power.

As early as summer 2007, author Cornelia Funke is quoted as saying that the movie had had its second screening and that she was extremely pleased with how the movie was turning out. Originally, production of the movie progressed very slowly, as with The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and several delays have pushed the film back significantly. Slated to be released on Christmas 2007, the release date was then pushed back to March 19, 2008, but the writers’ strike pushed the release of the movie back even further to its current date of January 23, 2009. Inkheart was filmed near London, England at Shepperton studios from 2006 to 2007. New Line Cinema will distribute the film, hoping to avoid any situation similar to the writers’ strike that would delay the release of the film even further. Several differences between the movie and the book exist, which might make a purist cringe, but otherwise, the film looks to be a faithful adaptation true to the style of the Inkworld trilogy.

The “German J.K. Rowling,” Cornelia Funke, has brought her award-winning series of books to a global audience, garnering much critical acclaim, popularity, and commercial success in the process. New Line Cinema will release the film adaptation of the first book of the Inkworld trilogy, Inkheart, on January 23, 2009 in the United States and Canada. Stars Brendan Fraser and Eliza Bennett will bring the characters of Mortimer and Meggie Folchart to life in a feature film that is sure to be a hit with the whole family.