Walden Media has snapped up the rights to Frank Cottrell Boyce’s 2008 kid novel Cosmic, and has hired him to adapt the script.
Boyce, a regular Michael Winterbottom collaborator who wrote Tristram Shandy: A Cock And Bull Story, Code 46 and 24 Hour Party People for the director, is also responsible for the slightly more age-appropriate Millions, which he penned for Danny Boyle.
Cosmic, which landed on the shortlist for the Carnegie Award, follows the adventures of a young man who can pass for an adult thanks to an early growth spurt. He poses as his best mate’s father to nab a seat on an experimental spaceship and has to grow up quickly when the trip encounters problems and he has to save the rest of the crew.
"In short, the story is Apollo 13 meets Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, so it makes sense that Cosmic's out-of-this world adventure would include a journey to the movie theatre," publisher Francis X Flaherty, Jr told Variety.
It’s not surprising that Walden Media got first dibs on the book, since it was published by Walden Pond, the company’s imprint that it runs with publishers Harper Collins.