Looks like the story of Peter Pan is just as immortal as its protagonist, as Warners is the latest of three studios to develop a project about the flying child hero.
Jason Fuchs is writing the script for a new movie about Peter Pan’s beginnings, which will be produced by Greg Berlanti and directed by Joe Wright (the director who brought us Atonement, Pride & Prejudice, and Hanna). They will certainly have a lot of competition: Columbia is also developing a Peter Pan project, and Disney is getting ready to adapt Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson‘s young adult novel Peter and the Starcatchers, which is also an origin story for the character. Peter and the Starcatchers has previously been adapted into a wildly successful play which won a number of Tony Awards.
Why so many Peters, and why now? It’s possibly a reaction against the gritty superheroes we’ve become so used to seeing; Peter Pan is nothing if not filled with optimism and wonder. Unless one or more of these studios is planning on trying to make Peter Pan into a grim antihero, which has already been done in a couple of books such as Gerald Brom‘s The Child Thief and most definitely does not need to be done again. You’ve got three chances not to disappoint me, Hollywood. Don’t screw it up. Just give me a second-star-to-the-right, think-happy-thoughts, lost boys and pirates fairy tale.
It will be interesting to see how three different studios deal with the same subject at roughly the same time. Joe Wright’s film will likely be more mature, while Disney’s will stay firmly in kids’ territory, and Columbia is the wild card. I feel like we’re getting ready for some sort of competition. Which Pan film will earn its place on the shelf of classic adaptations of the story? Stay tuned. I am definitely looking most forward to the one from Warners because I am such of big fan of Joe Wright’s other work. His Pride & Prejudice took a story that can easily become stiff and distant and made its world feel immediate and lived-in. Hopefully, he can accomplish the same with Neverland and give us something beautiful and new that still sticks to the spirit of the original tale.
(via: Hollywood Reporter)
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