AN ACCLAIMED author has spurned a film deal with Hollywood superstar Johnny Depp so the screen version of her novel can be made in London.

Leytonstone resident Saci Lloyd turned down an offer from the heartthrob’s production company, Infinitum Nihil, to make The Carbon Diaries into a film. Instead she has chosen instead for it to be developed into a TV series by Company Pictures and screened on the BBC.

The 42-year-old media studies teacher explained her decision: “It was very bizarre – it was like a Hollywood script turning down Johnny Depp.

“His company were brilliant and of all the people, you would want to work with him because I had every faith in him.

“But it is a London piece and I wanted to make it with people who knew the area well. London is very much a central character in the book.”

Her first book, The Carbon Diaries 2015 is a futuristic tale of how a London family copes through an environmental crisis of carbon rationing, told through the eyes of teenager Laura Brown.

The serious topic is delivered with humour inspired by the Adrian Mole books by Sue Townsend.

The book - which received rave reviews and is followed by a sequel out this month - was written following a year of research into climate change.

The former cartoonist and film script editor said: “We are facing the greatest crisis of humanity ever, but humans are brilliant and we can do it, but we need to take our heads out of the sand.

Writing about real life is paramount to Ms Lloyd, who said she is tired of teenagers indulging in novels about wizards and fantasy and would rather stories examined real life issues.

Her next book, yet to be published, is about a young boy who is stabbed in Waltham Forest, which she wrote after talking to young people in order to create an authentic “slice of London life”.

She said: “There have been several people from my college who have lost their lives. I am appalled at the number of young people around here who don't get a fair start. It is time for people to step up.

“Teenagers are very misunderstood and misrepresented. When you see a hoody, it is just one tiny part of them – there is so much good there.”

But despite her success, Ms Lloyd has no plans to quit teaching at Newham Sixth Form College in Plaistow.

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