Wonder Boy to take Mr. Favreau’s Wild Ride (Disney’s Magic Kingdom Finds a New Wizard, er, Writer)
By Rob Payne | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (11)
Michael Chabon has been a busy writer of late — kind of like the American Neil Gaiman — and this weekend was no exception. The Hollywood Reporter has an exclusive, stating that Chabon has agreed to pen a new draft of the Jon Favreau helmed Magic Kingdom. I imagine the pitch for Disney’s upcoming action/adventure flick went a little something like this:
“So, the plot is Night at the Museum, only it’s set in a Walt Disney owned theme park (meaning it won’t cost you a dime), and the director is the guy who made Zathura!”
I imagine if I was a suit at House of Mouse, and I heard that a pitch along those lines, I would be a fool not to get that greenlit, and quick. Really, any Disney employee who didn’t have that basic premise in mind after two Smithsonian-set flicks were huge successes should be ashamed of themselves. (The “creative team” behind Zookeeper, on the other hand, should be ashamed for even considering their idea.) Magic Kingdom is sure to make a mint at the box office, no Ben Stiller to trick kids into seeing a movie about the Smithsonian required. Would I see that movie? Heavens, no. But I’d greenlight the hell out of it. Now, however, with the additional alchemy of the scribe behind Wonder Boys, the Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and Gentlemen of the Road, the film might be worth setting aside the requisite paycheck for an opening night show.
The other piece of Chabon news involves the author’s HBO series (co-created with his wife, Ayelet Waldman), which has found a director in ex-The Wolverine’s Darren Aronofsky. The series is to be called “Hobglobin” and apparently it has nothing at all to do with Spider-Man’s rogues gallery. I’ll let Stuart Levine and Justin Kroll of Variety describe it:
“[Hobglobin] is about a group of con men and magicians who use their skills of deception to help defeat Hitler and the Germans during WWII.”
Inglourious Basterds meets The Prestige by the guys who made The Escapist comics and The Fountain, both movie and graphic novel? That and “Game of Thrones” (I know, I know) might be enough to get me to fit a HBO subscription into my budget.
Rob Payne writes the indie comic The Unstoppable Force, co-hosts the internet radio show/podcast We’re Not Fanboys, and looks up to Grady Tripp the way other English majors might regard their real creative writing professors.
Each Time You Like, Share, Tweet or Stumble a Pajiba Post, An Angel Does the Paul Rudd Dance
← Pajiba After Dark 6/19/11 | New Conan The Barbarian Trailer: All I Can Say Is, There Better Be Camel-Punching →
Comments
Posted by: HappyGobo at June 20, 2011 12:11 AM
Pretty sure Magic Kingdom is an adaptation of a Terry Brooks novel about a dude who buys a...magic kingdom, from the classifieds. Turns out its a fixer-upper.