After penning the critically acclaimed Wreck-It Ralph and then writing and co-directing the most successful animated film of all time in Frozen for Disney, it should come as no surprise that the House of Mouse want to stay in the Jennifer Lee business. And it looks like they have already lined up her next gig, one that won’t drive parents insane with ear-worming songs about letting go of snowmen.
Variety are reporting that Lee is set to pen a live-action feature film adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s award winning sci-fi fantasy novel A Wrinkle In Time for Disney. First published in 1962, Wrinkle is the first book in a series detailing the space-time misdaventures of the Murry and O’Keefe families. The story focuses on 14-year old, emotionally immature Meg Murry, who along with a bunch of her siblings and friends get transported through time and space to exotic alien worlds inhabited by strange races, all in search of Meg’s scientist father who has gone missing due to his experiments on something called the Tesseract (no, not that Tesseract. This is not a crossover with Thor). Along the way they’re assisted and guided by Meg’s neighbours – Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Whosit and Mrs. Which – who turn out be three alien beings. Oh, and did I mention one of Meg’s sibling is a 5-year old, telepathic child prodigy. So yeah, you could say things get kind of weird.
I’ve never read A Wrinkle of Time, but the books have been praised for their excellent handling of some heavy handed topics – like quantum physics, evil, religion and family drama – that are usually either not found or glossed over in children’s stories, and have garnered a huge following. The book is apparently one of her all time favourites as a child, and she impressed Disney brass with her young female driven pitch for the adaptation. And based on just how well she did with Frozen, her last young female driven production, she’s obviously a good fit here. This is actually the second time that Disney would be adapting this story (but now with a new spin on it, I’m guessing) as they made a children’s TV movie back in 2003.
There are currently no directors attached to this, and it’s still far too early for scheduled dates, but you can be sure that we will be hearing a lot about this one soon.
Last Updated: August 8, 2014
