Louis Sachar’s beloved book Holes is getting the Disney treatment once again, this time for a Disney+ series.
There’s a lot of affection for 2003’s Holes, the Andrew Davis-directed Disney film that adapted Louis Sachar’s 1998 novel. It’s a charming adventure, based on a novel that fits satisfyingly together like a Swiss watch.
It also features great villainous turns from no less than Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight and Tim Blake Nelson. You’ll also find a wide-eyed, young Shia Lebeouf before his career swerved into controversy and accusations of extending method acting to not washing on set (during the making of Fury).
As the House of Mouse loves to do, Disney is once again mining its back catalogue and reviving Holes for a new generation. Thankfully, it’s not making another movie – because a perfectly good one already exists – and so instead, we’re getting Sachar’s novel adapted as a Disney+ series.
The original story sees young Stanley Yelnats ‘incarcerated at Texas’ Camp Green Lake, where a ruthless Warden forces the campers to dig holes in a dry lake bed for a mysterious purpose. As the story progresses, Yelnats discovers that both his own story and the story of his family are more connected to Camp Green Lake than he could have ever imagined.’
You can expect a few changes to the original tale: the lead character will be a teenage girl this time around according to Variety. Sachar’s book is pretty slim, so adapting it into a series might require some additional material, too.
Per the report, Alina Mankin is the project’s writer and executive producer, while Liz Phang will serve as showrunner and executive producer. Drew Goddard will also executive produce.
Sachar wrote a sequel of sorts to Holes in 2006 titled Small Steps, so there’s always the possibility that should the series perform well, some of the characters from the original story could be brought back for a follow-up. That story hasn’t been previously adapted.
We’ll bring you more as we hear it.
