Thanks to the success of Frozen, Jennifer Lee is a young filmmaker who surely has many, many offers in front of her. The animated Disney film was her first directorial effort - sharing credit with Chris Buck - but her inexperience proved not to hamper the film in the slightest, as it went on to make $1.2 billion worldwide. So, with such a promising future ahead of her, where is Jennifer Lee going to do next? She's going to script an adaptation of another beloved, classic, fantastic story.
Variety is reporting that Jennifer Lee has worked out a deal that will see her write a big-screen adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved book A Wrinkle In Time. Disney is behind the project, and has had the property in development for a number of years. Previously, Bridge to Terabithia screenwriter Jeff Stockwell was hired to write the script, but obviously the studio is now going in another direction. It's unclear if Lee will be starting from scratch, or if she will be using Stockwell's draft as a base.
First released in 1962, A Wrinkle in Time chronicled the story of a young girl named Meg Murry, who heads out on an adventure when her government scientist father disappears. Learning about her dad's research into something called a "Tesseract," Meg and a team of companions wind up going on a strange journey that takes them to other dimensions and all through space and time. The book was one of Jennifer Lee's favorites growing up, and, according to Variety, "she impressed Disney executives with her take on the project, which emphasizes a strong female-driven narrative and creatively approaches the science fiction and world-building elements of the book."
While Frozen was the first time that Jennifer Lee directed a movie, it wasn't her first job in the film industry. In 2012 she co-wrote the screenplay for Walt Disney Animation's Wreck-It Ralph (which I would actually argue is even better than Frozen). In addition to working on A Wrinkle In Time, she will also continue to be a big part in the development of projects in the animated division. It's pretty clear that the Walt Disney Company has some serious faith in Lee's talents and abilities, and hopefully she'll get the chance to demonstrate them regularly in the coming years.
Obviously A Wrinkle In Time is still very much in the early stages of development, and at this point we can't say exactly when it will start kicking into high gear. There is no director attached at this point, and no timetable for either release or shooting. Given how well Guardians of the Galaxy did at the box office, this may be the perfect time to get some wild and crazy sci-fi out into the universe, so hopefully they'll hurry.
