Last time writer/director John Lee Hancock worked for Disney it didn’t go so well, with the $110 million The Alamo only grossing about $25 million around the world (despite actually being a pretty good movie). However with The Blind Side having become a massive hit, the House Of Mouse seems ready to bet on him again.
They’re not giving him the reins of a massive historical epic though, instead attaching him to a Blind Side style inspirational true story flick, called Electric Boy Genius. While the title may give you visions of some sort of sci-fi android movie, it’s actually about Ryan Patterson, who was fascinated by electricity from the time he was an infant. After he watched his father do wiring work on the family home, the youth mastered the principles of electrical flow. He was building robots by the time he was in high school and developing innovations like an electronic sign-language translator. The glove, which turned hand movements into letters of a screen, won Patterson acclaim and got him a job at Lockheed Martin, while in 2001 GQ did a profile on him, which will be the basis for the film.
Hancock is set to direct the movie, from a script by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Doug Wright. Disney is obviously hoping for some Blind Side style magic, which shocked everyone when it grossed over $255 million in the US alone, although whether lightning can strike twice is yet to be seen. (Source: Deadline)