Todd Haynes Developing Wonderstruck

Adapted the book by Hugo author Brian Selznick

Todd Haynes Developing Wonderstruck

by Owen Williams |
Published on

With Carol going over well at Cannes, director Todd Haynes has been discussing what his next project might be. Last we heard he was developing a Peggy Lee biopic with Reese Witherspoon, but it now turns out that there's another project in contention. Haynes is also hoping to adapt **Wonderstruck{ =nofollow}, from the children's book by Brian Selznick, author of The Invention Of Hugo Cabret.

Wonderstruck, in book form, covers two intertwining narratives and timelines. One involves a boy called Ben in 1977, living with his aunt and cousins in Minnesota after his mother's death, and running off to New York following the discovery of a mysterious note. The other revolves around a girl called Rose in 1927, apparently locked in a house in New Jersey, and escaping to Manhattan to see the latest film by her idol, the enigmatic Lillian Mayhew. Both children are deaf. Ben's story is told in text, while Rose's takes place solely in pictures.

Unlike Martin Scorsese's Hugo (adapted by John Logan), Selznick has written the Wonderstruck screenplay himself, which has impressed those who have seen it. Haynes' regular cohort Christine Vachon will produce the film. There's no timescale for the film yet, while Haynes gives Peggy Lee his full attention and develops a TV series based on the 2012 documentary The Source Family, but potential casting is already on the agenda.

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