Skip to Content

Find your next home with Luxist's "Estate of the Day"

Diana Ossana Tagged Articles at Cinematical

'Father Knows Best' Getting Made Over For the Big Screen

Filed under: Classics », Comedy », Deals », Scripts », 20th Century Fox », Family Films », Newsstand », Remakes and Sequels »



I thought the television-into-movies trend was going to die in the 90s after Inspector Gadget, The Mod Squad, and Lost in Space annoyed the crap out of everyone. A last gasp like Josie and the Pussycats was understandable, but it's kept on going, and it doesn't get any better. Most of them are a Bewitched level of quality that makes Miami Vice seem like Chinatown.

But Hollywood is just going to keep on trying, and the latest to get the makeover treatment is Father Knows Best. According to Variety, Fox has bought the rights and set Chad and Dara Creasey down to write a script. The film will be a contemporary version focusing on a father whose modern day parenting style clashes with that of his traditional father ... and guess who's coming to live with them and clash over which father knows best? Yep. I expect this to be Gran Torino meets Meet the Parents.

Apparently, every studio has tried to get Father Knows Best on the big screen. It's Fox's turn now, but Universal tried in 1994 with a script by Larry McMurtry(!) and Diana Ossana of Brokeback Mountain. When that fell through, it went over to Paramount who tried to turn it into a Tim Allen comedy.

Todd Field Tears Up Little Children

Filed under: Comedy », Drama », DIY/Filmmaking », Harry Potter »

Todd Field's adaptation of the novel Little Children by Tom Perrotta posed a lot of problems as he tried to cram the entire novel into a feature film ... so he rewrote it, literally. He hated the ending, and made some major changes, collaborating with Perrotta, who also shares a screenwriting credit on the film. They both worked together to make significant changes in order to adapt the book for into a film.

This isn't the first adaptation for either. Field wrote and directed Oscar-nominated In The Bedroom , which was based on an Andre Dubus short story. However, Dubus died two years before the film came out, which made it impossible for Field to colloborate with him. Perrotta's novel Election was adapted into a movie written by director Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor. Perrotta didn't work on that script, however, since it was the first one of his novels to be optioned, and the movie development went into high gear and was in theaters only a few months after the book came out.

Golden Globes: Best screenplay shocker!

Filed under: Awards »

Ha ha, just kidding. Guess what - Brokeback Mountain won! Get used to it. (But how on earth did they manage to overlook Noah Baumbach for The Squid and the Whale? That screenplay's won a lot of early awards. Color me both peeved and confused.) Trophies for Larry McMurtry, the king of the modern western novel, and writing partner Diana Ossana. Ossana reads a boring, very gracious speech while McMurtry stands there looking at his feet. Then he gets to talk and thanks the lawyers, his son and grandson, and his typewriter, "surely one of the noblest instruments of European genius." He's used it for 30 years, in a successful effort to avoid the evils of technology. Nice. I've always respected him based on reputation alone, but that was awesome - classy, simple, funny as hell. So that's what a good writer sounds like.
 
.