When Sony nabbed the rights to Graeme Simison’s novel The Rosie Project in April, the studio naturally went on the hunt for big names to adapt the popular book. It now has some top-level talent engaged for the film version, with 22 Jump Street’s Phil Lord and Chris Miller working with **The Fault In Our Stars **writing duo Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber to develop it.
Landing the Lego Movie directors for development purposes isn’t yet a sure-fire guarantee that they’ll end up directing it, but they’re certainly interested in Simison’s book, which the author gets first crack at adapting. Simison was an IT consultant who took a chance in his 50s on becoming a screenwriter and novelist, to rousing success. He will push through the process with the Fault scribblers tackling the next draft of the script.
It sounds like something both teams should be comfortable with: the book tells the story of professor Don Tillman, a genetics expert on the Asperger’s scale who never seems to be able to land a second date. He starts The Wife Project, working up a questionnaire to find the perfect partner, but is instead entranced by the free-spirited Rosie, who matches none of his criteria but might just be his perfect partner. The book has been big here in and in Australia where it's set, and a sequel, The Rosie Effect, is due to arrive tomorrow in the UK.
We’ll have to wait until the current script is finish before Lord and Miller decide if they’ll definitely tackle it. They’ve recently been busy working on a new version of US TV series The Greatest American Hero and overseeing the early stages of the Lego Movie sequel as producers. Meanwhile, Weber and Neustadter have several other scripts in play, including a second John Green adaptation after Fault, Paper Towns.