Now thatSpectreandSkyfallhelmerSam Mendeshasofficially said goodbye to the James Bond franchise, the director is looking to line up his next project. While Mendes has courted a number of projects in recent months, none of them have got the green light yet, and today brings a new project to add to the pile: an adaptation ofEmil Harris' critically acclaimed graphic novel,My Favorite Thing Is Monsters.
Loaded with classic monster movie and pulp horror homages, the comic is told through a fictional diary and follows a 10-year-old girl in 1960s Chicago who attempts to solve the murder of her upstairs neighbor, a mysterious holocaust survivor. Sony recently won the rights in a competitive bidding battle for Amasia Entertainment’sBradley GalloandMichael Helfantto produce. Per Deadline, Medes is in early talks to develop and direct the project, and should the deal make, he will also produce.
Mendes is alsoattached to direct a live-action adaptationofRoald Dahl’sJames and the Giant Peachfor Disney, as well as an adaptation of the best-selling novelBeautiful Ruinsfor Fox 2000. He was developing The Voyeur’s Motel with Dreamworks and Stephen Speilberg but that project reportedly fizzled due to an issue with the rights. He is also producing theJane AustenpictureLost in Austenfor Sony.
Here’s the official synopsis forMy Favorite Thing Is Monsters:
Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late ’60s Chicago, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is the fictional graphic diary of 10-year-old Karen Reyes, filled with B-movie horror and pulp monster magazines iconography. Karen Reyes tries to solve the murder of her enigmatic upstairs neighbor, Anka Silverberg, a holocaust survivor, while the interconnected stories of those around her unfold. When Karen’s investigation takes us back to Anka’s life in Nazi Germany, the reader discovers how the personal, the political, the past, and the present converge.
