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This will go into a few spoilers, so if you haven’t seen City of Ember then you might be better off reading the book.

Following 2001’s double whammy of Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and New Line Cinema’s The Lord the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, numerous studios made a mad rush buying the rights to an assortment of fantasy novels to adapt into big screen blockbusters. They made sure to pick those that were in a series, since everyone wanted their own fantasy franchise. A few actually saw sequels, such as Twilight, The Chronicles of Narnia and Percy Jackson & the Olympians. However, many were left with just the one - Eragon, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Golden Compass, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant and City of Ember.

The book The City of Ember was first published in 2003 and is the first in a series of four books by Jeanne Duprau. Tom Hanks’ production company Playtone brought the rights to the book in November 2004 and were looking at Caroline Thompson to adapt it for the screen, with Gil Kenan to make his directorial debut. Kenan described it as “exactly the kind of movie that I wanted to make,” and revealed how he worked with Thompson to turn a wordy-based mystery and puzzle solving novel into a more visually epic film. Playtone also managed to get Walden Media to help co-finance the film, with 20th Century Fox to distribute. Everything seemed to be working out, but then Kenan got an offer from Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg to direct Monster House.

Pre-production on City of Ember continued, with production designer Martin Laing creating a small city inside a warehouse in Northern Ireland. Shooting for the film began in July 2007 and continued over a four month period.

Ember itself is an underground city, a refuge for humanity that’s suffering occasional blackouts. The inhabitants don’t seem to realize that the generator has outlived its 200 year lifespan and is on its last legs. The Mayor (Bill Murray) is lost when it comes to what to do and has little interest in fixing problems. Instead, the only ones that seem to be concerned with doing anything are two children – Lina (Saoirse Ronan), who works in the city as a messenger, and Doon (Harry Treadaway), who is responsible for looking after the pipes under the city. When Lina comes across a metal case with some important looking documents, she enlists the help of Doon to help put the clues together, hoping that they just might hold the key to saving the city.

20th Century Fox had previously collaborated with Walden Media on Because of Winn-Dixie, which was released in February 2005. Following this film, they announced and created Fox-Walden in August 2006, which would specialize in producing family films. Over the next two years they released The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium and Nim’s Island. A week before City of Ember was released, it was reported that Fox-Walden would be absorbed by Fox as a part of their marketing unit, reasoning that that there just weren’t enough films to warrant having a separate marketing body. They made sure to avoid mentioning how the films released under the Fox-Walden brand had performed below expectations.

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