To begin with, it felt easier to categorize Tom McCarthy. The actor-turned-director’s first three movies, “The Station Agent,” “The Visitor” and “Win Win,” were quite different in some ways, but all felt of a piece: gentle, humane comedy-dramas with excellent performances. But then he made the pilot for “Game Of Thrones,” albeit the original, unaired version mostly scrapped after cast changes and other issues. And then he made the much-derided Adam Sandler-starring “The Cobbler,” a commercial and critical disaster. But then he bounced back with his surprise Best Picture winner “Spotlight,” a film that might be his very best, and which won him an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (with co-writer Josh Singer).
READ MORE: Interview: Tom McCarthy Talks ‘Spotlight,’ State Of Journalism, ‘The Wire’ & More
Since then, McCarthy’s continued to defy expectations: first, he directed the first two episodes of Netflix’s YA teen drama “13 Reasons Why” (which we reviewed here). And now he’s taking on a very different kind of project once again, as The Hollywood Reporter reveal that he’ll co-write and direct kids’ movie “Timmy Failure,” an adaptation of Stephan Pastis’ picture books, for Disney (Pastis will co-write the script with McCarthy).
The series apparently revolves around an 11-year-old boy who runs a detective agency with his partner, an imaginary polar bear, and gets into various adventures. This isn’t McCarthy’s first brush with family fare: he was a writer on Pixar’s classic “Up,” and rewrote Alex Ross Perry’s script for the upcoming Winnie The Pooh movie “Christopher Robin,” but this is something else entirely.
And while the trade compare the film’s tone to “Diary Of A Wimpy Kid,” we imagine McCarthy’s planning something more like kid-friendly noir, unless he’s had an attack of the Cobblers again. There’s no word on a start date yet, but McCarthy doesn’t have anything else firmed lined up yet, so this would appear to be his next movie.