First announced at Sony in 2012, development on a film version of literary and TV perennial The Little House On The Prairie hasn't moved quickly. It gained Sean Durkin as its director in 2014, but while we haven't heard much since, it's back in the news this morning. Sony have dropped the project, but Paramount have picked it up. Scott Rudin is no longer producing, but Durkin and screenwriter Abi Morgan remain attached.
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s semi-autobiographical children’s book series chronicled the adventures of the Ingalls family - Charles and Caroline, and their three daughters, Mary, Laura and Carrie - on the 19th century American frontier. Most of us of a certain generation encountered the gentle, nostalgic TV adaptation on '90s Sunday mornings on Channel 4.
The word you're looking for is "wholesome", but there's something interesting afoot with the new movie that nobody's quite telling us yet. Durkin was the director of the indie psychological thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene and producer of Simon Killer. Before him, the Little House was on the radar of similarly idiosyncratic indie director David Gordon Green, equally at home with a serious drama or a stoner comedy. Morgan wrote Shame...
How do these sensibilities play into the adventures of the Ingalls? We don't know, but we're intrigued. Perhaps the plan is to allow a little more of the books' tragedies and dangers onto the screen, and cut back somewhat on the moralising.
No further details are forthcoming, but we'll continue to scratch our heads and keep a beady eye on this one as it develops at its new studio.