In news that’s so bizarrely in line with two of my greatest cultural interests that it’s frankly eerie, Deadline Hollywood reports that Sony Pictures is currently in negotiations to launch a new Little House On The Prairie feature film that would be helmed by David Gordon Green. The outlet reports that the deal is not done yet, but that it’s currently being working towards.
Which is awesome, because Little House On The Prairie is awesome and Laura Ingalls Wilder is so, so awesome that she ranks as both my first female heroine of literature and my favorite female heroine of literature.
If you’re not familiar with the Ingalls family – well, first of all, what’s wrong with you? Second of all, they are wonderful. Wilder penned eight books about her life growing up in the 19th century American West, a series that was published between the years of 1932 and 1943. Wilder’s life was rich and fascinating, particularly because she and her family moved so extensively around the burgeoning states, first in Wisconsin and on to Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, and Missouri, and their trials and tribulations and successes serve as a wonderful microcosm of life during that time period. If there was something to be experienced in the 19th century, the Ingallses experienced it. The Little House books are truly enduring literature.
And, of course, the potential Green involvement is certainly compelling. You know how I consistently bemoan the director’s (one of my favorites) recent choice of projects (you know, stuff like Your Highness, yech)? And how I beg for Green to do something more worthy of his talents? Little House might be it – at the very least, it’s something different, and there’s probably no potential for James Franco to nab a starring role (Pa Ingalls, you ain’t, nutbar!).
To add weirdo icing to this cake of wacky wonder, the outlet also reports that, should this deal happen, Abi Morgan would pen the script. A playwright by trade, Morgan cut her feature teeth on a number of television movies before writing two of last year’s most interesting films – the bold and brilliant Shame and the nutty trash pile that was The Iron Lady. She most recently wrote the script for Ralph Fiennes’ The Invisible Woman, a fact-based tale about Charles Dickens’ mostly-unknown mistress. At the very least, Morgan shows an interest in historical women, but she’s still an unexpected pick.
Little House was most notably adapted into a nine-season-long television series that ran from 1974 to 1993. The books have also been turned into a Japanese animated series, two television movies, and a miniseries.