After making the ranks on last year’s Black List, Michael Mitnick is moving forth with a more childish adventure. According to Deadline, the screenwriter has been hired to pen Oliver Jeffers‘ children’s novel, The Incredible Book-Eating Boy, for Universal. Escape Artist duo Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and Steve Tisch are producing with Bryan and Sean Furst.
We haven’t received much word on cast or, even, a synopsis for this adaptation, but you can check out the book’s brief rundown below (via Amazon):
Like many children, Henry loves books. But Henry doesn’t like to read books, he likes to eat them. Big books, picture books, reference books . . . if it has pages, Henry chews them up and swallows (but red ones are his favorite). And the more he eats, the smarter he gets—he’s on his way to being the smartest boy in the world! But one day he feels sick to his stomach. And the information is so jumbled up inside, he can’t digest it! Can Henry find a way to enjoy books without using his teeth?
I’m not really sure how they’re going to pull this one off, considering the novel is fairly short and aimed for children 4 and up. Then again, they made Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs into a movie, so they can pretty much do whatever they want.
Mitnick‘s Black List script, The Current War, is getting the Hollywood treatment as well, with Timur Bekmambetov directing. He’s also keeping busy with another untitled project for Universal, a rewrite of Jekyll — which once had Keanu Reeves starring and Nicolas Winding Refn directing. And, as a side note, he’s also writing the book for a Broadway-bound musical based on Animal House. Oh, man.
Can you see Book-Eating Boy making a good movie?