Almost a year ago now, it looked like Forest Whitaker would be taking on an adaptation of William Paul Young’s bestseller The Shack as his next directing gig. He’s moved on since then, and now Lionsgate/Summit has found someone else for the job: step forward Exam’s Stuart Hazeldine.
John Fusco has written the adaptation, which will follow a character named Mackenzie Allen Phillips who, while trying to recover from a huge personal tragedy, receives a mysterious note that invites him to the titular structure.
The most intriguing part of the note is that it’s signed Papa, his wife’s nickname for God. Phillips decides to play along, and discovers that the Shack has more of a Biblical overtone than even the note suggested.
Williams’ book hit shelves in 2007 and has been in development since 2013, when Summit bought the rights. Hazeldine has been busy as a writer since 2010’s excellent low budget thriller Exam, scoring high profile scribbling jobs on the likes of ambitious Alex Proyas pic Paradise Lost, Steven Spielberg’s Gods And Kings (sidelined by Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods And Kings) and a film adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s Agincourt. But for all that solid work, it’s good to see him headed back behind the camera after showing so much promise the first time.