By Anita Busch
Jun 1, 2017
EXCLUSIVE: Amblin Partners just acquired a pitch from writers Greg Erb and Jason Oremland based on the book Sky High, for Diary Of A Wimpy Kid director Thor Freudenthal. Sky High is a fantastical adventure about an ordinary man and his son who have to survive a journey through the tallest, craziest, most amazing house in the world – all while trying to repair their fractured relationship and uncover the incredible secret history of the house itself.
Sky High, written by Germano Zullo and illustrated by Albertine, was first published in 2011 in Switzerland under the title Les Gratte-Ciel by Francine Bouchet’s Editions La Joie de lire. The U.S. edition of the original book was published by Chronicle Books which today is celebrating its 50th anniversary at the Book Expo in New York. Albertine is a well-known, award-winning illustrator, and Zullo has published many children’s books along with him.
The project was brought into the studio by Andrew Calof and he will oversee it. The Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Jeremy Bell will produce with Eddie Gamarra and Peter McHugh on as executive producers.
Freudenthal made his feature directorial debut with Hotel For Dogs for DreamWorks, Lauren Shuler Donner and The Montecito Picture Company. His past credits include Motel which premiered at Sundance and won best comedy at Aspen. He also directed the first Diary Of A Wimpy Kid which was produced by Nina Jacobson.
In addition, he helmed Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters which was produced by Karen Rosenfelt and 1492 Pictures for Fox 2000. In television, Freudenthal recently directed the season finale of The Expanse for Syfy, and he’s currently directing The Tick for Amazon.
Gotham is in production on Maze Runner: The Death Cure for Fox and is in post on the road-trip drama Kodachrome which stars Jason Sudeikis and Ed Harris.
Erb & Oremland are currently writing Playmobil, an animated film in production for Open Road based on the popular toy brand. The are also executive producers on that project. They also sold an original pitch The Naughty List to New Line Cinema, Ed Terrestrial to Disney, and worked on the Oscar-nominated Princess And The Frog.
Additionally, they are writing an untitled series for DreamWorks Animation.
Erb & Oremland are repped by Gotham, Paradigm and Mitch Smelkinson; Freudenthal is repped by Gotham, Verve and Rob Szymanski. Chronicle Books is repped by Gotham.