Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: It’s not a great day for Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day at Disney. The Kids Are All Right helmer Lisa Cholodenko, who has long been working on the project, has stepped out and decided not to direct it. The good news is that Disney still has Steve Carell attached to play Alexander’s dad, and the studio is still gearing up to make the movie this fall. So it means a good job for a director and Disney has already started searching.

Steve CarellDisney signed on to the project last fall after Fox decided not to make the adaptation of the Judith Viorst children’s book. The film has a script by Cholodenko and Rob Lieber, with Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps producing with Lisa Henson.

This is 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. Here’s hoping it makes it to the screen.