The Disney/Fox conglomerate acquires its third film project, as the studio now maintains the rights to an adaptation of Jumanji book writer Chris Van Allsburg’s The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, according to Deadline. The Mysteries of Harris Burdick will be adapted into a screenplay written by Rafe Judkins and handled by a production team consisting of Bill Teitler, Mike Weber, Ted Field, Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen.
The book revolves around the eponymous character as an enigma of a man who publishes a series of fantastical illustrations, each featuring a brief caption. Burdick promises to apply story lines and plots to these drawings the following day, only to mysteriously disappear. Van Allsburg places the story in the hands of his readers to determine his or her own conclusion to each illustration. The best seller has become a staple in high school creative writing courses across the country.
The Mystery of Harris Burdick reunites Judkins with many of the film’s producers, most of whom wrote the upcoming Uncharted film and co-created the upcoming Amazon series Wheel of Time. The acquisition of The Mystery of Harris Burdick follows that of another Van Allsburg property- The Garden of Abdul Gasazi- as well as The Sweetest Fig. The three Allsburg projects do not have release dates and have yet to enter production.
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