Amblin Picks Up 'Cheshire Crossing', Which Features Female Characters From 'Wizard Of Oz', 'Alice In Wonderland', And 'Peter Pan'

What would happen if Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, and Wendy from Peter Pan met at a boarding school? Author Andy Weir wrote a piece of fan fiction about that exact topic before he became a breakout success with The Martian, and that fan fiction morphed into a graphic novel called Cheshire Crossing. Now Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment has picked up the rights to make a movie based on that graphic novel, so this fairy tale mashup is coming to the big screen.

The Hollywood Reporter says that Erin Cressida Wilson will write the screenplay for Cheshire Crossing. Wilson wrote Secretary, Chloe, Jason Reitman's Men, Women & Children, The Girl on the Train, and is currently working on a live-action version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for Disney, so she already has some experience writing for classic fairy tale characters. Michael De Luca, who was nominated for an Oscar for his producing work on films like The Social Network, Moneyball, and Captain Phillips, is on board to produce this new movie.

THR describes the story like this:

The fantasy mashup tells the story of Dorothy from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Alice of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Peter Pan's Wendy, who meet in boarding school for troubled young ladies. They each believe they've traveled to a fantastical world but no one else does. When their world-hopping sees Captain Hook and the Wicked Witch of the West team up to combine their magical villainy, the trio must band together to thwart them.

You have to wonder if Disney is cringing a bit at the idea of characters like Alice and Wendy being depicted outside of the studio's creative control, since Disney's animated versions of those characters loom so large in the minds of the public. But this won't be the first time something like this has happened – in fact, it's happening right now. Benh Zeitlin, who directed the 2012 Sundance hit Beasts of the Southern Wild, just directed a film called Wendy that puts his own spin on the Peter Pan story; the difference is that movie is for Fox Searchlight, which falls under Disney control.

Whatever happens with this project, it's seemingly a good time to be Andy Weir, who is teaming up with Phil Lord and Chris Miller for a sci-fi movie called Artemis and a mysterious new film with that duo as well. And before I wrap this up, I want to give props to Sarah Andersen, who illustrated Cheshire Crossing – illustrators are important, too!