20th Century Fox is planning to turn another of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" author Roal Dahl's books into a movie. Variety reports that Fox Animation has landed the right to "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and have hired Rushmore director Wes Anderson to helm it.
The classic kids tale is has a lot in common with "The Adventures of Peter Rabbit", in that it's another farmer versus vermin story. The book tells the story of a fox outsmarting a team of three rather dumb farmers who decide they no longer want to share their chickens with him and instead seek his extermination.
This will be Wes's first full blown animated movie, and he's co-writing it with his Zissou scripting partner Noah Baumbach. Compared to "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "Fantastic Mr. Fox is a fairly simple book, one of Dahl's earlier works and intended for very young readers. That ought to leave plenty of room for Anderson and Baumbach to inject a lot of themselves into it.
