Disney to Acquire Newberry Award Winner THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN

Disney is currently negotiating to obtain the rights to The One and Only Ivan, a children’s book written by Katherine Applegate and illustrated by Patricia Castelao. The book is about, 

“a silverback gorilla named Ivan who lives in a cage in a shopping mall along with an elephant named Stella and a stray dog called Bob. Ivan does not remember life before the mall, but when a baby elephant enters and Ivan finds himself taking care of her, he begins to rediscover his previous life and concocts a plan to take the baby elephant away from their abusive owner.“

Disney is planning a live-action adaptation of the Newberry Award winning novel. It sounds like a sad movie to me, especially since it’s based on the true story of a gorilla that lived in a Washington mall for 27 years, but hopefully they make their escape and things turn out all right in the end. It could run along the “underdog triumphs over adversity” archetype, I just hope we don’t have to watch too many scenes of animal cruelty to get there.

Thanks to THR for the heads up.