It’s not often that the southwest of England attracts the attention of Hollywood, but it’s doing well this week, as parts of Alice In Wonderland (which is released on Friday) were filmed in Devon and Cornwall, and now Vulture reports that Almost Famous and Jerry Maguire director Cameron Crowe is interested in directing We Bought A Zoo, based on Benjamin’s Mee’s memoir about purchasing the dilapidated Dartmoor Wildlife Park.
The Devil Wears Prada writer, Aline Brosh McKenna, has been working on the screeplay for the movie, although if Crowe does sign on to direct, it’s likely he’ll want to do a bit of rewriting.
You can certainly see why Hollywood is interested in the story, as not only has it got animals (studios love that), but there’s plenty of human drama as well. Despite having no experience looking after animals, Mee bought the zoo almost on a whim. He then moved his entire family to Devon, rechristened the attraction Dartmoor Zoological Park, gave the entire thing an overhaul and rehabilitated the 500 animals there, despite also having to cope with the fact his wife’s brain tumour had re-emerged.
Complicating this was that before Mee bought it, the park had been the bane of animal rights activists, who had protested about the poor living conditions of the animals and the safety precautions taken for visitors. The previous owner was charged with 16 offences due to the way he ran the zoo, eventually being found guilty of breeding endangered Siberian Tigers outside of an organised breeding programme, and of keeping them in poor conditions (tigers were found in an old concrete bear pit, with no grass or other amenities). Despite these problems, Mee stepped in after the park was put up for sale but failed to find a buyer, putting the lives of all the animals there at risk.
It’s the sort of story that would seem rather unbelievable if it weren’t true, but certainly has all the ingredients for a great film, and Crowe, who hasn’t made a movie since 2005’s Elizabethtown, would seem a good choice to helm it.