Lisa Cholodenko has made a bit of a reputation for herself as an indie directing darling, and is currently riding high on the Oscar-nominated success of The Kids Are All Right. However it looks like she might be going in a rather different direction for her next film, as Variety reports that she’s in talks to direct a live-action adaptation of the children’s book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day for 20th Century Fox.
The story follows a young boy who endures a frustrating day that begins with him waking up to find gum in his hair and ends with him threatening to move to Australia. He just can’t seem to get anything right, with his teacher moaning about his picture of an invisible castle (actually just a blank sheet of paper) and getting into trouble for punching his brother, who called him a crybaby after he got pushed in the mud.
Robert Lieberman is adapting Judith Viorst’s book, which was first published in 1972 and has become a bit of a classic in the world of illustrated kid’s books, selling over 4 million copies. However as the book is largely a series of rubbish things happening to Alexander, presumably they’ll have to come up with a bit more of an over-arching plot for the film (maybe Cholodenko can give Alexander two slightly neurotic lesbian mothers to spice things up). And with Shawn Levy and the Jim Henson Company producing, you have to wonder whether there’ll be a slight fantasy element brought in.
The film is being eyed as a possible franchise (following the success of Diary of A Wimpy Kid, Hollywood is scouring the children’s book lists for other properties that can be made cheaply but could scare up decent profits), as there are two more Alexander books.