Fox/Disney has acquired screen rights to The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, the bestselling children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg. Darren Lemke (Goosebumps, Shazam) will adapt. Mike Weber, Bill Teitler and Ted Field are producing. Chris Van Allsburg will be exec producer.
The Garden of Abdul Gasazi was the first book written by Van Allsburg, for which he won a Caldecott Honor medal. This was before his books Jumanji and Polar Express were turned into big Hollywood films. Specifics on the movie were being kept close to the vest, but like Van Allsburg’s other books, a grounded premise leads to the discovery of a fantastical world. Here, a young boy named Alan tries to rescue Miss Hester’s dog, Fritz from the great magician Abdul Gasazi when Fritz accidentally runs off into the forbidden garden of Abdul Gasazi.
