Translated into 54 languages, and selling 35 million copies worldwide,
Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder's novel, Sophie's World, which was
filmed to limited success by Norwegian director Erik Gustavson in 1999,
will now become a bigger-budget English-language project.

Swedish producer Staffan Ahrenberg, who worked on Phillip Noyce's The
Quiet American (2002) and executive-produced Zandalee and Johnny Mnemonic - has signed Swedish writer Malle Jensen to script the film as if 'Harry Potter met Alice in Wonderland.'

Ahrenberg told local press that he acquired the rights to the project several years ago, and has since been trying to find the right scriptwriter. 'Jensen is intelligent, gifted, and not too Hollywood-addicted,' he added. Director and cast will be named after the summer, the film will shoot entirely in the US.

Ahrenberg said Michael Caine has accepted the role of God in the story.

Published in 1991, Sophie's World is the story of a 14-year-old girl,
living with her mother and her cat. She gets mysterious philosophical messages and becomes the student of a philosopher who takes her on a journey through time and space. But they both are fictional characters in a novel trying to enter the real world.

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