Elizabeth McCracken’s The Giant’s House is headed to the big screen, with Andy Serkis directing and Nick Hornby adapting the 1996 novel, Deadline reports.
McCracken’s debut novel tells the story of a 26-year-old librarian who befriends an unusually tall boy in 1950s Cape Cod. The book was a finalist for the National Book Award for fiction.
Serkis, perhaps best known for his performance as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings series of films, made his directorial debut in 2017 with the biopic Breathe. More recently, he’s directed the comic book film Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and he’s helming a planned animated film adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Hornby, the author of novels including High Fidelity and About a Boy, wrote the screenplays for the film adaptations of Cheryl Strayed’s Wildand Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn. He will also serve as an executive producer on the film.
Hornby shared news of the project on Instagram, writing, “Posting this in the hope that it will help solidify a pipe-dream project.”
McCracken, meanwhile, made reference to Serkis’ famous versatility as an actor, tweeting, “I really hope Andy Serkis decides to play every character. Let's make movie history.” She added, “I'm very delighted by this news. & I've read a version of the Nick Hornby script, which floored me with its understanding & invention.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
