The helmer of 'Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson' rock musical is set to direct the film adaptation of Dale E. Basye's best-selling kids' novel, while Chris Weitz is tapped to rewrite the script.
- January 5, 2012
AceShowbiz -
MGM is moving forward to develop "Heck", an adaptation of Dale E. Basye's best-selling children's book series, soon after it has recovered from its financial troubles. Vulture reported that the studio has sealed a deal with Broadway director Alex Timber to helm the upcoming film.
Timber is a Tony-nominated writer and director of Broadway rock musical "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson". He is set to replace Oscar-winning director Juan Jose Campanella, who was previously tapped to direct the forthcoming novel-adapted movie.
While Timber is set to serve behind the lens, screenwriter Chris Weitz has been tapped to rewrite the script for "Heck". According to The Playlist, the "A Better Life" scribe took over the position from Bob Iserson, who penned the first draft of the story which is essentially a "school-age version" of "Dante's Inferno".
Based on Basye's book "Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go", "Heck" centers on Milton Fauster who, with his shoplifting sister, dies in a freak accident and ends up in an unearthly reform school called Heck, where Lizzie Borden teaches home economics and Richard Nixon is the ethic teacher. Milton then meets Virgil, a boy who has a map of the Nine Circles of Heck, and the two plot to escape the netherworld and its leader, the principal of darkness Bea "Elsa" Bubb.
