Am I the only one who still likes to enjoy stories for the sake of the story? Though it’s not a new fad, Hollywood continues to create films that go into the background of how a great work was created, with the Mary Poppins-centered Saving Mr. Banks as the most recent example. Now audiences can look forward to seeing the events that inspired Lewis Carroll to create Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, as OddLot Entertainment has acquired Stephanie Shannon’s Queen of Hearts script, which will one day see Identity Thief’s Seth Gordon as its director. Those hoping for a two-hour movie of Carroll dropping acid while putting a pen to paper will almost certainly be disappointed with the reality of this project.
Queen of Hearts will delve into Carroll’s life, according to Deadline, focusing on a failed relationship that leaves him brokenhearted and apparently in the proper frame of mind to craft an imaginary tale about a size-shifting young girl who chases after a rabbit. Story of my life right there, minus the heartache and eventual worldwide success.
But seriously, this is a concept that worked in Shakespeare in Love, since Shakespeare wrote romances, but doesn’t seem like it’ll have anything to do with the oddities and wordplay that made Alice’s stories so great. In any case, I thought the novel was spawned from stories he told to the children of a friend.
In the plus column, Shannon’s screenplay gained attention by making it to the 2013 Black List of unproduced screenplays, and she won the 2013 Nicholl Fellowship, a high honor for beginning screenwriters. She was as assistant for David McIlvain, who is Gordon’s manager, so that’s probably how Gordon became attached to the project.
Don’t expect this one anytime soon, though, as the director only yesterday signed on for the long-gestating feature adaptation of the extremely successful Uncharted video game series. And that kind of a big budget affair definitely takes precedence over a quirky revisionist biopic. Depending on when Uncharted begins production, there’s a good chance Queen of Hearts will be hitting theaters around the time of James Bobin’s Alice in Wonderland 2, allowing Carroll fans to double up on the legendary author.
Gordon is everywhere these days, as he’s directed a handful of episodes for ABC’s comedy The Goldbergs, and he’ll also be directing the pilot episodes for Jim Gaffigan’s untitled CBS comedy, as well as the Ken Marino/Casey Wilson NBC sitcom Marry Me. Last year, he also attached himself to the strange "maple syrup theft comedy" from Jason Segel, but I’m guessing someone else will get stuck to that one.
How do you guys feel about watching Lewis Carroll get dumped? Tell us in the comments as the croquet game below reaches full swing.
