James Mangold To Direct Giant Cat Movie ‘Crenshaw’

Directing “The Wolverine” and “Logan” back-to-back was fairly unusual for James Mangold. The director generally doesn’t like to stay pinned down to one genre for very long. Over the course of his career he’s done everything from intimate indie dramas (“Heavy“) to  musical biopics (“Walk The Line“) to westerns (“3:10 To Yuma“) to Tom Cruise vehicles (“Knight & Day“). Still, he’s keeping us on our toes by signing up for a kids movie.

Yep, the guy who just delivered the R-rated “Logan” is shifting gears by signing up for “Crenshaw.” Fred Seton penned the first draft of the screenplay, which is based on the book by Newbery-winning author Katherine Applegate, and tells the story of a young boy, and his best friend, a giant imaginary cat. Here’s the book synopsis:

Jackson and his family have fallen on hard times. There’s no more money for rent. And not much for food, either. His parents, his little sister, and their dog may have to live in their minivan. Again.

Crenshaw is a cat. He’s large, he’s outspoken, and he’s imaginary. He has come back into Jackson’s life to help him. But is an imaginary friend enough to save this family from losing everything?

The plan is to make a live action adaptation, though it’s safe to assume the cat will be rendered by CG. It actually all sounds like a pint-sized version of “Harvey“, starring Jimmy Stewart, and that could be pretty interesting.

No word yet on where “Crenshaw” will fall in Mangold’s schedule, but he’s got a few other projects cooking, including the remake of “Disorder” which was supposed to start shooting by the end of this year, and the adaptation of Don Winslow‘s “The Force.”