With the excellent “The Kids Are All Right” sweeping its way through awards season last year earning four Oscar nominations, writer and director Lisa Cholodenko looks to be taking a page from from fellow indie cohorts Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach and Charlie Kaufman by turning her talents to a children’s tale for her next film (just a reminder, the first worked on “Fantastic Mr. Fox” while the latter did some tinkering on “Kung Fu Panda 2“).
Variety reports that Cholodenko is in negotiations to direct an adaptation of the classic kid’s book “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” by Judith Viorst. The property was picked up last summer by Shawn Levy to produce and develop under his 21 Laps banner. The comedy “revolves around family members collectively enduring the worst day of their lives. In the book, the central character, Alexander’s day goes from bad to worse after he wakes up with gum in his hair. The young boy gets so frustrated that by bedtime, he threatens to move to Australia.”
The film will be the second directed by Cholodenko that she didn’t write (“Cavedweller” being the other), with Rob Lieber penning the screenplay. And not only that, the film has bonafide franchise potential with two sequels “Alexander, Who’s Not (Do Your Hear Me? I Mean It!) Going To Move” and “Alexander Who Used To Be Rich Last Sunday” already on bookshelves.
It’s an interesting move for the filmmaker but not wholly surprising. She’s been racking up street cred on the indie circuit for years, and this is a great opportunity for her to flex her muscles a bit in the mainstream world on a project that will be taking her in a new creative direction as well. No word yet on when this one will start rolling.
