This morning we have news regarding two very different projects—one children’s book adaptation, the other a horror film—from a couple of certified Steven Spielberg acolytes.
It looks like Robert Zemeckis is heading back to the mo-cap world after working in the flesh-and-blood world with last year’s “Flight.” Variety reports the “Forrest Gump” filmmaker has officially signed up to direct the long-brewing adaptation of Kate DiCamillo’s 2006 novel “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.” The 1930s-set young adult novel follows a ten-year-old girl’s vain china rabbit—the titular Edward Tulane—as he falls overboard from the RMS Queen Mary and undergoes a series of hardships and a succession of owners as he learns about life and matures out of his vanity and selfishness. No release date or production start date has been released for the Jeff Stockwell-scripted adaptation but given the long productions animated films usually go through, we’re guessing it’ll take a little more time than Zemeckis’ fictionalized take on “Marwencol.”
And in less heartwarming and family-friendly news, “Disturbia” director D.J. Caruso will direct a Wentworth Miller-penned supernatural thriller, THR reports. The film, “The Disappointments Room” will center on “a mother who moves her family to a nice Colonial manse in the country. The woman slowly begins to lose her sanity as she learns of the home’s bloody past and is afflicted by visions of a dead girl.” Caruso has put out an offer to Kate Beckinsale to take the starring role but so far no official deal has been made. Should everything line up the film will be Miller’s second produced screenplay, the first being this year’s Park Chan-wook-helmed “Stoker.”
