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EXCLUSIVE: I’m told that Disney is stepping up to make Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, the adaptation of the Judith Viorst children’s book that has Steve Carell attached to star and The Kids Are All Right writer-director Lisa Cholodenko helming a script she wrote with Rob Lieber. The film will be produced by Shawn Levy and Dan Levine for 21 Laps along with Lisa Henson.
The project became a free agent when 20th Century Fox put it in turnaround last month. Carell boarded the project last April. There was interest from Universal, Sony, MGM and Walden but Disney grabbed the live action project. Disney gets one of the more entertaining and humorous of the yarns you read endlessly to your kids at night. Alexander starts a wretched day with the realization that the gum he fell asleep chewing is now hopelessly tangled in his hair, and things get worse from there, to the point he threatens to chuck it all and move to Australia. Carell will play his dad.
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Good move. Disney needs more of these kinds of family movie comedy concepts. This is the kind of movie that they can release and market better than any other studio out there. They should focus on this stuff, and not on trying-too-hard-to-be-cool 20,000 Leagues, Frankenweenie, John Carter type films. Those are better made and marketed by other studios. Disney should stick with its strengths and brand. Alan Horn clearly knows what he’s doing.
Totally agree. If you are lucky enough to have a brand, stick to it! Don’t try to be something you’re not.
What?!? I never approved putting this in turnaround! I want it back. I demand it back. Who the hell decided this was a good idea to give up the rights to? Was it Tom Rothman? Is this why I fired him? He passed on Ted and that made a fortune. Why am I only learning about this turnaround today on this website? Why wasn’t I informed we were giving this movie away? Did we get our money back on it? Did we lose money on it? My brilliant financial advisors told me to buy MySpace and I lost a fortune on that. Tell Disney they can’t have this it’s a no good very bad deal for me and I want it back first thing Monday morning. Thank you.
Sorry Rupert you’re too late. We bought it fair and square. This is what you get for having idiots running your movie studio. They could have put this into production but they decided it wasn’t worth the cost. Now we will make a lot of money with it and you will learn about our profits on FOX Business News. You should hack into more phones so you will know what your employees are doing without telling you. They are incompetent and you should listen to their calls and read their emails. As the big boss you have the legal right to spy on all your workers at all your companies.
Sounds terrible, horrible, no good and very bad.
I will agree with “Smart” who posted first. Disney should return to the middle-grade adventure, fantasy and humor mold and stop trying to be “edgy”.
Alexander is a good start but before Fox wises up and starts scooping up books that suit the Disney brand, go out and get a lock on 1) A Taste for Red by Lew Harris, 2) Ordinary Magic, by Caitlen Rubino Bradway, 3) the boy Sherlock Holmes series from Shane Peacock, 4) From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler by EL Konigsburg – a classic, 5) Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Colville.
I know all of these books but the Sherlock Holmes one and agree with everything you said. They all suit the Disney brand and any or all would be a real “get” (tho “A Taste for Red” might be more for the pre teen and young teen audience). It is very hard to believe that nobody’s snapped up the Konigsburb book – I think it won the Newberry many years ago. And “Ordinary Magic” is a little gem.
Great idea, although it will be tough to turn it into a feature.
Somebody needs to purchase the rights to Edward Eager’s series of magic adventures from the 1950′s that would make a great group of films about ordinary kids experiencing extraordinary magic in their everyday surroundings.
“Half Magic” 4 kids find a coin that grants wishes, but only in halves. This leads to some incredible complications as tempers arise and wishes are made without thinking.
“Magic by the Lake” same 4 kids experience strange adventures by a lake during summer vacation, all of them water based.
“Knight’s Castle” years later, the children of the same 4 kids are magically “shrunk” into one boy’s knight set and end up setting the story of “Ivanhoe” (with King Richard, Robin Hood, etc.) on its end. It gets crazy when his girl cousin “modernizes” up his set with cars, dolls, etc, and the kids get stuck in the middle of it all.
“Time Magic” these four kids experience magical thyme which takes them on adventures through time at an old house in New England. They eventually meet their parents as kids on the adventure they were having back in “Magic by the Lake.”
These would be great films.