Spotlight co-writer/director Tom McCarthy has a history with Disney – he's written films such as Million Dollar Arm and was part of the script team for Up. Recently he signed onto re-write the Mouse House's Christopher Robin pic and is now close to signing on to direct Timmy Failure he intends to adapt from a Stephan Patsis children's book.
If he makes a deal, McCarthy will be going in a very different direction from his usual live-action drama work, co-writing the script with Patsis for an idea that has been compared to such younger fare as the Diary Of A Wimpy Kid books and movies.
The basic idea for the Timmy Failure books focuses on the titular hero, an 11-year-old boy with an overactive imagination who believes himself to be the greatest detective in town. He runs an agency known as Total Failure, Inc. and works alongside an imaginary polar bear. Oh, and he has a flesh and blood sidekick named Rollo Tookus, who is actually responsible for spotting the clues he needs to solve cases.
Disney has Pete's Dragon producer Jim Whitaker ready to shepherd the film, so his experience around kids with unlikely friends should come in handy. But here's hoping the movie is a success if it happens, because that title is just inviting headline puns if it's a flop...