Sophie Nelisse has opted for another literary adaptation for her next project, although it's a little bit different toprevious effort The Book Thief. She's signed on as the title character of The Great Gilly Hopkins, from the young adult novel by Katherine Paterson. Glenn Close, Kathy Bates, Danny Glover and Octavia Spencer are her adult co-stars, and Stephen Herek (Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Critters) is the director.
The story, obviously enough, revolves around the fractious and rebellious Gilly (short for Galadriel) and her experiences in foster care. Landing with the Trotters (lead by fearsome matriarch Maime, Bates' character) she hatches an escape plan to get back to her birth mother. But when she's finally reunited with her drop-out hippy mom - through the conduit of her grandmother - she finds that she might be better off with the Trotters after all.
The rest of the announced cast haven't been publicly matched up with their characters so far, but Glover will clearly be Maime's blind neighbour Mr Randolph. We'd assume Close will be her grandmother Nonnie, but there's no confirmation of that so far.
Paterson wrote The Great Gilly Hopkins in 1978, a year after Bridge To Terabithia, which was filmed by Disney in 2007 starring Josh Hutcherson. Gilly's screenplay, as with Terabithia, is by the author's son David Paterson, and Stephen Herek's cameras will be rolling in April.
The novel is currently out of print in the UK, but expect that to change in the near future. The Nelisse-starring **The **Book Thief is out over here on February 26.