Beverly Cleary’s The Mouse and the Motorcycle is headed to the big screen, publisher HarperCollins announced in a news release.
The 1965 children’s novel, illustrated by Louis Darling, follows Ralph S. Mouse, a daredevil rodent who befriends a boy staying in a California hotel. A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “The whimsy is slight—the story is not—and both its interest and its vocabulary are for the youngest members of this [8- to 12-year-old] age group.”
Cleary wrote two sequels to the book, Runaway Ralph, illustrated by Darling and Tracy Dockray, and Ralph S. Mouse, illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky. The original novel was adapted into a stop-motion animated film in 1986 by director Ron Underwood.
The new adaptation, being developed by Amazon MGM Studios, will be a hybrid film, incorporating live action and CGI. Writing the screenplay are David Guion and Michael Handelman, who also wrote the scripts for the films Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and Slumberland; they are also behind the upcoming adaptation of the children’s classic Harold and the Purple Crayon.
Cleary, who died in 2021 at the age of 104, was a prolific author, but her books haven’t been adapted for the screen frequently. Her series of books featuring the memorable character Ramona Quimby formed the basis of Ramona, a Canadian television series that launched the career of actor Sarah Polley. The novels were also adapted into Ramona and Beezus, a 2010 film directed by Elizabeth Allen and starring Joey King and Selena Gomez.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
