January 1, 2008 UPDATE:
As most fans know by now, the first Three Investigators movie was released in November, 2007 in Germany. Production on the 2nd film, "The Secret of Terror Castle" began shortly thereafter in South Africa. Unfortunately, at this time, it appears that none of these movies will be released elsewhere. Future updates concerning the movie will only be added to this page if they are deemed to be of interest to English-speaking fans of the series.
December 1, 2003
Steven Bauer, husband of Robert Arthur's daughter Elizabeth, confirms the following:
At the end of October 2003, a contract was finalized for the Film/TV rights for The Three Investigators series. The production company is Studio Hamburg Productions which will team with European and American partners. Discussions are underway with ARD, a German public broadcasting station, and Buena Vista, the European arm of Disney.
The contract is open-ended--in other words, Studio Hamburg owns the rights as long as they keep making Three Investigators movies and TV programs. The first film will be "Skeleton Island" which is the sixth book in the series. It will be shot in English, as will all future films, and the television series as well. Shooting locations are not confirmed although information from Germany indicates that sites in Los Angeles and Australia are being considered along with studio sets in Hamburg. The script will be written by American David Howard. Germany’s Ronald Kruschak is the producer. Elizabeth Arthur will act as a creative consultant on the script, and on the project overall, to make sure that the spirit of Robert Arthur's universe will remain intact. Toward that end she has veto power over any ill-conceived merchandising. Shooting should begin in the fall of 2004, and the TV series should go into production simultaneously. Release date for the film is Dec. 2005. (Now scheduled for November 2007.)
Fans of the series should know that Elizabeth Arthur has literally been working for years to bring back the Three Investigators series; there have been several opportunities in both movies and TV in the past. Unfortunately, these always seemed to fall through at the last minute. In some cases, the studios wanted to change the Three Investigators universe drastically. It was only after Elizabeth had exhausted all reasonable avenues in the US that she took the project overseas, where, as you know, the boys are bigger than ever. You'll be pleased to know that Elizabeth always stood her ground on keeping the boys as originally written by her father, Robert Arthur.
