Once a rather surprising project on David Gordon Green‘s plate, the film adaptation of famed TV show "Little House On The Prairie" is now in the hands of an equally surprising name. Sean Durkin ("Martha Marcy May Marlene," the TV mini-series "Southcliffe" which is worth catching up with), is now the man behind camera for this movie, which has its origins in the children’s book series by Laura Ingalls Wilder about a family living in the American Midwest in the 1880s. Abi Morgan ("Shame," "Brick Lane") penned the script, and Scott Rudin will produce. [THR]
The ever-busy Spike Lee is back behind the camera, stepping once again into the documentary world. He’s making a movie about Little League phenom Mo’ne Davis and "the Taney Dragons and their journey to the Little League World Series." [Wooder Ice]
Stephen Chbosky, of "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" fame, is shifting gears a bit, going the family movie route with "Santa Is Real" (geez). Based on the upcoming book "Santa Claus Is for Real: A True Christmas Fable About the Magic of Believing," by Charles E. Hall and Bret Witter, it has a script by Larry Stuckey ("Little Fockers"), and follows a struggling actor whose life and career is saved when he plays Santa in Radio City’s Christmas Spectacular. Chbosky is also bringing his family film vibes as the screenwriter for Disney‘s live action "Beauty And The Beast." [THR/EW]