John Lee Hancock, who directed last year’s Best Picture nominee The Blind Side, has signed on to helm Electric Boy Genius for Disney.  The film is based on a 2002 GQ article written by Andrew Corsello, which tells the story of Ryan Patterson.  Described by Deadline as a “real life Doogie Howser,” Patterson was already “building robots by the time he was in high school and developing innovations like an electronic sign-language translator.”

In 2001, Patterson won the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, which landed him a job working in aerospace robotics for Lockheed Martin. Screenwriter Doug Wright (Quills), who has also won the coveted Pulitzer Prize for his theater work, will write the script.