Vince Gilligan Developing ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ Movie for Disney
Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan is in talks with Disney to move forward with a film adaptation of the fairy tale, Jack and the Beanstalk, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Gilligan penned the treatment for Beanstalk, described as a “revisionist take” on the familiar story of the young man, magic beans and a greedy giant. Gilligan will continue to serve as a producer on the film, while Thomas Schnauz — a co-executive producer on both Breaking Bad and its new spinoff Better Call Saul — will write the script.
While Gilligan and Schnauz’s Breaking Bad credentials may seem like an odd choice to revive a beloved fairy tale, the sagas of Walter White and Jack — desperate men who will stop at nothing in order to provide for their families — aren’t that dissimilar. Beanstalk marks Gilligan’s first major film project since penning the 2008 Will Smith movie, Hancock. The lengthy hiatus, however, is understandable considering Breaking Bad premiered the same year.
Gilligan has stuck with television, however, since Breaking Bad ended in 2013. Along with co-creating Better Call Saul with Breaking Bad cohort Peter Gould, Gilligan joined forces with House creator David Shore to create Battle Creek, a detective show for CBS. Both shows premiered this spring, with Better Call Saul — which delves into the backstory of Bob Odenkirk’s skeevy, scheming lawyer, Saul Goodman — wrapping up its first season earlier in April. It will return next year for Season Two, which AMC ordered before the show had even debuted.