With a title like The Care and Feeding of Exotic Pets, one might understandably assume Diana Wagman's soon to be released book is a specialty instruction manual on animal caretaking. In fact, it's a thriller about a single mom named Winnie Parker whose life is thrown into the balance when she is haphazardly kidnapped. Trapped in a house with her unbalanced abductor and Cookie, his demanding seven-foot long iguana, Parker must carefully discern the reasoning behind her capture so that she might return home to her moody but beloved teenage daughter.
The novel won't hit store shelves until November 13th, but Deadline reveals Ken Kwapis and his production company In Cahoots have already bought the book's movie rights. Kwapis, who most recently helmed the whale-centered drama Big Miracle, will write and direct.
This is an unexpected project for Kwapis on a couple of fronts. First off, he's best-known for helming such fluffy features as the rom-com He's Just Not That Into You and the coming-of-age dramedy The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. So, a psychological thriller like The Care and Feeding of Exotic Pets will stand out for better or worse on his filmography. Beyond that, it's surprising that Kwapis is personally adapting the screenplay because though he's directed more than 30 film and television productions, he has only had one screenplay produced: the little-known 2005 dramedy Sexual Life. However, Kwapis does have a gift for crafting female-driven features, so perhaps that will be enough of a foundation for him to create something different but dazzling with The Care and Feeding of Exotic Pets.
