Tim Burton is circling an adaptation of Ransom Riggs' novel Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. According to Deadline, Burton is in talks with 20th Century Fox and Chernin Entertaniment to develop the book into a directing vehicle, and he would set the screenwriter. The story involves a teenager who finds the old orphanage his grandfather used to tell him about, but discovers that its unusual residents may have been more dangerous than he was led to believe. It's a story that sounds a little like Big Fish until you thrown in the "dangerous kids" aspect. At that point, you have Burton doing another horror movie (unless the kids are just "misunderstood", in which case, booo).
Hit the jump for a synopsis of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children as well as a recap of Burton's other potential projects. Burton's next movie, an adaptation of the 60s cult horror TV series Dark Shadows, opens May 11, 2012. He also has a stop-motion feature-length adaptation of his short film Frankenweenie due out on October 5, 2012.
Here's the official synopsis for Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children:
A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.
It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.
A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows. [Amazon]
The blockbuster success of Alice in Wonderland has given Burton more freedom than he's ever had in his career, but it looks like he's happy staying his wheelhouse of seemingly-dark-but-really-just-misunderstood characters. Back in 2010 he signed on to direct an adaptation of the Japanese board game Monsterpocalypse, and earlier this year we reported that he was adapting Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Josh Brolin.