A live-action adaptation of Flat Stanley, the beloved series of children books, has a director and a new pair of writers according to The Hollywood Reporter. 20th Century Fox has tapped Josh Greenbaum (The Short Game) to direct and Chad Damiani and J.P. Lavin to pen a rewrite of a previous draft by Adam F. Goldberg (Fanboys) and Chris Bishop (TV’s The Goldbergs).
The Flat Stanley series chronicles the many adventures of Stanley Lambchop, who, after inadvertently being flattened like a piece of paper, is able to shape shift and slip through the most narrow spaces. Beginning with the original book series created by Jeff Brown in 1964, Flat Stanley has spawned a new series of books as well as a student and classroom enrichment project known as The Flat Stanley Project, in which children around the world send each other their own paper cutouts (or virtual cutouts if they’re using digital devices) and stories of the titular character.
Greenbaum previously directed the SXSW Audience Award-winning documentary The Short Game, the inspirational story about a select group of the best 7-year-old golfers in the world. Flat Stanley will be his first narrative feature film.
Though Damiani and Lavin are primarily known for their Black List script Kamikaze Love, they have written a handful of adapted scripts that are currently in development. They wrote a draft of How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack, based on the book by Chuck Sambuchino, for ImageMovers (Robert Zemeckis’s company) and Sony Animation. They also adapted a script of the Mattel toy Max Steel for Paramount and producer Joe Roth (Maleficent, Alice in Wonderland) as well as a script of Rob Liefeld’s Capeshooters, which Brian Singer has been attached to produce since 2008.
According to Deadline, John B. Carls (Rango, Where the Wild Things Are) has been attached to produce the Flat Stanley adaptation since Walden Media acquired the rights in 2011.
Fox has not yet announced a release date, but the addition of a new creative team should at least serve as a harbinger for the next stages of development.
Leave a Comment