Sam Mendes, director of some of the most memorable children’s films, like Revolutionary Road, American Beauty, and Road to Perdition, is circling a live-action adaptation of James and The Giant Peach.
According to the Deadline report, Mendes would be working from a screenplay by Nick Hornby, nominated last year for his Brooklyn screenplay. Like the report says, “talks are in the very early stages,” but imagining Sam Mendes in charge of a kid’s movie is interesting indeed.
Of course he hasn’t done anything along those lines thus far in his career, but I have no doubt he has the creative range to tackle the Roald Dahl book. James and The Giant Peach was previously given the stop-motion treatment in 1996, in a film directed by Henry Selick.
Stop motion was a good medium for such a bizarro children’s book, but live action would definitely be cool to see. It worked for Willy Wonka… the Gene Wilder one, not the Johnny Depp one that is. Let’s all forget about that Johnny Depp one, shall we?
Sam Mendes’ next project, The Voyeur’s Motel, about… well… a voyeur who opens his own hotel, definitely isn’t a kid’s movie. We’ll see what happens.
