Measle and the Wrathmonk: According to Variety, Warner Bros. and ImageMovers have purchased Measle and the Wrathmonk, the first of what will be a three-book series by Ian Ogilvy.

The film is eyed as another opportunity to use the "performance capture" animation technique to be used this fall in The Polar Express. ("Performance capture" is the new term coined for what was formerly called motion capture.)

ImageMovers partners Robert Zemeckis (who directed "Polar Express") and Jack Rapke made the purchase along with prexy Bennett Schneir. The first book will be published in Britain this June by Oxford U. Press, with HarperCollins following with a U.S. launch in August.

Author is a British actor best known for playing the title role in a remake series of "The Saint."

"Measle" concerns a young boy who, after his parents go missing, is sent to live with an eccentric uncle who turns out to be a crazy wizard. Before the kid knows it, he's been shrunk and banished to be a villager in the wrathmonk's toy train set.