There are seven novels in the Lorien Legacies series, written by author Pittacus Lore, and somehow I Am Number Four is the first, not the fourth. (It’s definitely a misleading title, but it gets extra points for originality). The books tell the story of a group of aliens that have superpowers but live like regular teenagers. It makes a lot of sense that producer Steven Spielberg, a big fan of the supernatural genre, hired Smallville creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough to co-write the script along with Buffy, the Vampire Slayer screenwriter Marti Noxon. Spielberg, hoping to draw in fans of the Twilight saga during the golden age of movie adaptations of young adult books, cast the attractive and up-and-coming actor Alex Pettyfer as John Smith/Number 4, and he hired D.J. Caruso to direct due to the success of his movies Disturbia and Eagle Eye, which starred Shia LaBeouf.
The result was something that even Michael Bay, co-producer of the I Am Number Four movie, admitted was mostly just noise. Alex Pettyfer showed no charisma on screen whatsoever, killing off all the features that made Number Four a lovable character in the Lorien Legacies series. Although the film is good enough for a viewer to enjoy it in the moment, it features forgettable special effects, mediocre performances and unmotivated actors that pushed this movie into the big hole in the ground where forgotten young adult movie adaptations get buried.
Are there any books that you loved and were used to make a horrible movie? Go ahead and drop them in the comments!
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