A TV series based on Louis Sachar’s Holes is currently in the works over at Disney+.
Variety reports that Disney+ ordered the series to pilot with Alina Mankin as writer and executive producer, Liz Phang as showrunner and executive producer and Drew Goddard, Sarah Esberg Mike Medavoy and Andrea Massaro as executive producers. Walden Media, the producers of Walt Disney Pictures’ 2003 film adaptation, is returning to produce pilot and have supposedly “been attempting to get a series version of the book off the ground for some time.”
“In this reimagining of the beloved 1998 book from Louis Sachar, a teenage girl is sent to a detention camp where the ruthless Warden forces the campers to dig holes for a mysterious purpose,” the project’s logline reads.
Sachar’s 1998 book of the same name followed a young boy named Stanley Yelnats IV who gets sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile correctional facility in a Texas desert, after he was falsely accused of theft. While at the bootcamp, he finds out that Camp Green Lake’s history and the other detainees have an actual connection to his arrival there.
The 2003 film starred Shia LaBeouf in the lead role alongside Sigourney Weaver, Khleo Thomas, Jon Voight, Tim Blake Nelson, Patricia Arquette, Dulé Hill and Eartha Kitt.
“My mom’s been a schoolteacher for her whole life and, as such, she’s served as a de facto book scout for Goddard Textiles,” Goddard told Variety. “She always knows what ‘the kids’ are into long before everyone else does. ‘Holes’ was the first book she suggested to me – this was back in the late ‘90s – and she was positive it was going to be a phenomenon. It feels good to bring it full circle for Mrs. Goddard and her sixth grade class.”
“They’ve done a wonderful job capturing Louis Sachar’s unique spirit,” Goddard added. “To say much more about what they have in store would spoil all the fun.”
Stay tuned for more info on the series.
