Sometime about a thousand years ago, I remember reading that Disney had ahold of the rights to the children’s book Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. I also remember that Steve Carell was set to star in it as poor little Alexander’s father. Then I forgot all about it and went on with my life, entirely oblivious to what was going on with that one. Now I have learned that director Miguel Arteta is going to direct the film.
If none of this means anything to you, that’s OK, because I had no idea who Miguel Arteta was either. Turns out he was the guy who directed Youth In Revolt, with Michael Cera, and Cedar Rapids, starring Ed Helms. Given the subject matters of those two films, I’m a little surprised to learn that Disney tapped Arteta of all people to take on what we presume will be more or less a children’s movie.
As far as we know, Steve Carell is the only confirmed cast member for Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day – and he never does bad movies, does he? With rather sparse source material, there are actually a lot of places to go with this to draw the story out into a two hour film. We could wind up with Where The Wild Things Are Redux, which would be amazing. Or we might get Horton Hears A Who! in live action.
Only time and Disney can tell, of course. Arteta is an interesting choice, and Carell is capable of some excellent performances, so this might bode well for Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
The film is aiming for a fall start, so maybe we’ll get some insight as to what they’re going to do with it before long.
