Film In Development Based On A Wrinkle In Time

You've probably read Madeleine L'Engle's young adult novel A Wrinkle in Time. You might also have seen the 2004 TV adaptation which, as L'Engle reviewed, really wasn't very good at all. Now a group is having a go at a feature adaptation, spearheaded by producer Cary Granat. (Who, you may recall, is also behind the 3D adaptation of the Book of Genesis we recently covered.)

Can a feature version of L'Engle's story work?

THR reports that Granat and his new Bedrock Studios are putting together the film, and so far they've hired screenwriter Jeff Stockwell to write. Granat has been part of adaptations like this before, as he was a player at Walden Media when the first Narnia movies were being made.

This is part of Bedrock's plan to produce franchise-able features for $35m and under. (Which is why that Biblical adaptation In the Beginning is being made for $30m as well.) Also in development are an adaptation of novels such as The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and Eiko Kadono's Kiki's Delivery Service. The latter was previously made into a ho-hum cartoon by some guy named Hayao Miyazaki, so that's totally ripe for a new version. (Please read that last sentence with as much sarcasm as possible. Or, to clarify, yes, I know that Miyazaki's version is great.)

Here's a brief intro to the book:

It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger. "Wild nights are my glory," the unearthly stranger told them. "I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I'll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract." A tesseract (in case the reader doesn't know) is a wrinkle in time. To tell more would rob the reader of the enjoyment of Miss L'Engle's unusual book. A Wrinkle in Time, winner of the Newberry Medal in 1963, is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe (athlete, student, and one of the most popular boys in high school). They are in search of Meg's father, a scientist who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government on the tesseract problem.