A little bit of “writers hired to adapt things” news this Sunday afternoon. DreamWorks has hired Mike White (“School of Rock,” the recently cancelled “Enlightened”) to adapt the latest novel from Matthew Quick, author of “Silver Linings Playbook.” Quick’s “The Good Luck of Right Now” will be published Spring 2014 and is about a man who takes care of his mother with dementia and falls for a librarian who believes she and her brother were once abducted by aliens. Like ‘SLP,’ it is also set in Philadelphia. Quirky enough for you?Wentworth Miller (“Prison Break” actor, “Stoker” screenwriter) is set to adapt Richard Parker’s upcoming psychological thriller novel “Scare Me.” Parker’s novel will be released late next month and is said to be “in the vein of ‘Se7en‘ ” as a “tale of modern urban terror, for anyone who’s ever worried that someone might one day use the internet to track them down and cause them and their family harm…” Sounds like this will be right up Miller’s alley post-“Stoker,” the psychological thriller starring Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska. Readers balked at our not-so-favorable Sundance review, but note that the film has tanked in limited expansion and likely won’t be released wide.
BAFTA-winning playwright and screenwriter Jack Thorne (one of our 10 Screenwriters To Watch In 2013) is in early negotiations to adapt Neil Gaiman’s upcoming novel “The Ocean at the End of the Lane.” Gaiman’s novel will be released this June and is told through the eyes of a 7-year-old narrator as he deals with menacing creatures from beyond that were unleashed after a lodger committed suicide in the family car. Joe Wright (“Pride & Prejudice,” “Atonement”) has also signed on to direct the film.
Remember that “Crazy U” movie we mentioned a while ago? The one meant for Will Ferrell about Andrew Ferguson’s mission to get his son into a top college? Well, Jesse Andrews (author of novel and Black Listed script “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”) has signed on to write the screenplay.