After writing/directing such excellent indie features as The Station Agent, The Visitor, and Win Win, Tom McCarthy is returning to the family film world with a new project. You may know man who also dabbles in acting (most notably in The Wire), also had a hand in another children’s film, Pixar‘s Up. Working on the 2009 hit for three months, he created our lead character’s sidekick Russell the Wilderness Explorer, and now he is extending his knowledge in the arena, to a DreamWorks project.
THR reports the has been hired to write a supernatural family comedy titled Home Movies. It doesn’t look like it has any correlation with the Adult Swim show, as it centers on a “man who is able to revisit certain moments in his life through his home movies and change things.” DreamWorks crafted the idea with the original writer, Jared Stern. Family film creator extraordinaire Shawn Levy (director of Night at the Museum, Date Night, Real Steel) will producer under his production shingle 21 Laps, with Bruce Nash and Robert Kosberg of Nash Entertainment assisting.
McCarthy is able to inject human drama into his films like almost no other writer/director can. His ability to craft realistic characters is simply unmatched. I’m definitely looking forward to him broadening his horizons for a project like this one.
What do you think about McCarthy venturing back into family entertainment?