Disney's SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES Adaptation to Be Directorial Debut of Seth Grahame-Smith

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Seth Grahame-Smith to Make Feature Directorial Debut on Disney's SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES

By Dave Trumbore

Published Mar 13, 2014

Seth Grahame-Smith to Make Feature Directorial Debut on Disney's SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, An Adaptation of Ray Bradbury's 1962 Novel.

Disney will remake their 1983 film, Something Wicked This Way Comes, itself an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's 1962 novel of the same name. While the studio's resident screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith will set to work writing a treatment for the film, Disney will then hire a screenwriter to pen the actual script. Why not let Grahame-Smith handle those duties? Because he'll be making his feature directorial debut on this picture. Hit the jump for more.

As Deadline reports, Disney is revisiting the creepy carnival tale of Something Wicked This Way Comes. The tale tells of a traveling carnival led by the mysterious, tattooed Mr. Dark, and two fourteen-year-old boys who have a harrowing encounter with the man. Though Bradbury scripted his own adaptation for the 1983 film, Grahame-Smith felt the movie left out a lot of the novel.

“I have been so crazy about this book and it was such a formative title in my life that I actually wrote a piece on NPR about why it is so important for young males to read,” Grahame-Smith said. “It is a classic coming of age, father-son story about the transition from childhood to adulthood and how kids can’t wait to be adults and adults romanticize their childhoods. I’m not remaking the movie; I want the haunted atmosphere that makes the book so chilling, and I want to reinstate some of the classic scenes from the book that were missing from the ’83 film.”

I haven't been particularly blown away by any of Grahame-Smith's writing either in his books or for the screen, but I do appreciate his passion and message for Something Wicked This Way Comes. How far that goes towards making a serviceable film remains to be seen. In related news, while a screenwriter pens this adaptation, Grahame-Smith will finish his draft of the Beetlejuice sequel. The author/screenwriter is also working on a follow-up novel to his Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter book, which is due out in January.

Here's the trailer for the 1983 version of Something Wicked This Way Comes, though I highly suggest you seek out the source material: