Jennifer Lee to adapt "A Wrinkle in Time" for Disney

[Scottie]

‘Frozen’ Director Jennifer Lee to Adapt ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ for Disney (EXCLUSIVE)

Jennifer Lee, who wrote, and co-directed “Frozen” with Chris Buck, has chosen her next project: “A Wrinkle in Time.”

Lee will write the bigscreen adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s book for Disney in which children travel through time and visit strange worlds in order to find their missing scientist father.

Published in 1962, “Wrinkle in Time” was one of Lee’s favorite novels as a child, and she impressed Disney executives with her take on the project, which emphasizes a strong female-driven narrative and creatively approaches the science fiction and world-building elements of the book.

While Lee adapts “A Wrinkle in Time,” she will continue in her role as part of Walt Disney Animation’s story trust and remain active in projects in development at the division that scored with “Frozen” — its biggest hit ever at the box office with nearly $1.3 billion — and has “Big Hero 6,” based on a Marvel property, out Nov. 7.

There is no director yet attached to “A Wrinkle in Time” that Jim Whitaker will produce with Catherine Hand.

Jeff Stockwell (“Bridge to Terabithia”) had initially tackled the screenplay when the project was first announced in 2010.

“A Wrinkle in Time” is the first book in L’Engle’s “Time Quartet” series that also includes “A Wind in the Door,” “Many Waters,” and “A Swiftly Tilting Planet.”

Whitaker most recently produced Disney’s “The Odd Life of Timothy Green.” His credits also include “American Gangster” and “Robin Hood.” Hand already had produced a “Wrinkle in Time” TV movie for ABC that aired in 2003.

Lee, who also co-wrote Disney’s “Wreck-It Ralph,” is repped by CAA and Code Entertainment.

Source

[Panemlights]

I'm definitely excited for this one. I love the books and always wondered if there could ever be a movie for them. It's even better knowing that one of Frozen's directors is adapting it too.

[Al_The_Strange]

It's got to be better than this cheap-o version:

[Panemlights]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

It's got to be better than this cheap-o version:

What other version?

[DisneyBlu]

She was involved with the writing for Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen, this will hopefully be good as well.

[Batman1980]

As a science major and health care worker, I'd love to see what modern Hollywood can do with the more microscopic elements of these stories.

[Foggy]

Hate Wrinkles, they're so overrated...PASS!

[Zorkel567]

Disney and Selma director Ava DuVernay are setting Oprah Winfrey to star in A Wrinkle In Time, an adaptation of the 1963 Newbery Medal-winning Madeleine L’Engle fantasy classic novel that has a script by Oscar-winning Frozen writer and co-director Jennifer Lee. Winfrey will play the role of Mrs. Which. The studio is moving quickly to cast the film, with actors including Amy Adams and Kevin Hart chief among those circling. Winfrey is in final negotiations. She starred for DuVernay in Selma and played a role behind the scenes in helping to make the movie happen. Winfrey and DuVernay also co-created and are exec producing the upcoming OWN series Queen Sugar.

This is a big one for Disney Motion Pictures president Sean Bailey and exec Tendo Nagenda, who’s steering the film. A Wrinkle In Time involves a young girl whose government scientist father has gone missing after working on a mysterious project called a tesseract, which involves being transported to a fifth dimension with mysterious inhabited planets. She takes part in a search for her father and sees some incredible creatures along the way.

Winfrey is repped by WME

Oprah Winfrey to Star in A Wrinkle in Time

Ava DuVernay appeared on many a film buff’s radar thanks to her work on Selma, the critically-acclaimed (and Oscar-winning) Martin Luther King Jr./Civil Rights movement drama that was released in 2014. In truth though, DuVernay has been directing films for well over a decade – with critical darlings I Will Follow and Middle of Nowhere under her belt too – and served in a publicist/promotional capacity on such hits as Spider-Man 2, I, Robot, Collateral, and Hairspray during the 2000s. Thus, it’s only fitting that she’s now been considered to direct some big-budget features herself.

Marvel Studios did approach DuVernay with an offer to call the shots on the upcoming Black Panther solo movie, starring Chadwick Boseman as the film’s super-heroic namesake. However, the filmmaker passed on that project and instead accepted another studio-backed film: A Wrinkle in Time, Disney’s live-action adaptation of the Madeleine L’Engle fantasy novel of the same name (published in 1963). DuVernay has nevertheless set a new precedent with her decision to sign on for a Disney fairy tale feature.

Deadline (hat tip to Women in Hollywood) is reporting that A Wrinkle in Time has a budget that exceeds $100 million, making it the first such $100 million film to be directed by a woman of color. The project has received an $18.1 million incentive from the California Film Commission to film in the state; it’s also the largest incentive the program has offered since it expanded in 2014. A Wrinkle in Time is expected to bring in $85 million in qualified spending to California too, with a cast and crew numbering around 400.

Ava DuVernay is the First Woman of Color to Direct a $100 Million Film