While Lisa Cholodenko(The Kids Are All Right) is in the process of developing her hit family film into a TV series, she hasn't left her movie career behind in the least. She's been signed up to direct an adaptation of Judith Viort's novel, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day since last year, although I wasn't reminded of it until it was mentioned last month in a story about Universal's plans for a new Cat in the Hat movie. Now the film appears to be working into shape, with Deadline reporting that Steve Carell is in early talks to star.
Viort's 1972 novel is something of a classic, one I remember reading as a kid, following the titular Alexander and his family who are altogether having the worst day of their lives. It begins with Alexander going to bed with gum in his mouth then waking up to find it in his hair, and it all goes downhill from there. Alexander harbors dreams of moving to Australia where he thinks nobody has any problems ever. Carell will play Ben, which may be a new character or perhaps the name they're giving to the father character. Rob Lieber, who is scripting that Cat in the Hat film mentioned earlier, is writing the script.
The book was followed up by two sequels, Alexander, Who's Not (Do Your Hear Me? I Mean It!) Going To Move and Alexander Who Used To Be Rich Last Sunday, so there's some possibility for a franchise here, especially with Carell being so successful with family oriented movies.
