It may be over 100 years old, but the story of a narcissistic toad with too much money, zero self-control, and a terrible driving record only becomes more and more relevant with each passing Lohan, so it makes sense that The Wind In The Willows is getting yet another update. Promisingly, the 2012 adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s prescient 1908 children’s book will be a mixture of live action actors and “state-of-the-art animatronics”—not the unholy live-action/CGI hybrid that’s become de rigueur these days—overseen by Peter Jackson’s effects company, Weta Workshop. The script is being handled by Bill Marsilli, who already has experience writing for easily distracted children thanks to his work with Tony Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer on 2006’s Déjà Vu.
According to Variety, the story will focus on what happens when “the animals join forces to save their land from a sinister plot that threatens to destroy the uneasy truce between the peaceful animals of the Willows and what remains of Mankind.” And based on that description alone, you’d probably assume that everybody who called Avatar “socialist propaganda” will hate it—except that it’s being directed by Ray Griggs, whose best-known project to date (besides the poorly received superhero comedy Super Capers) is the forthcoming “conservative documentary” I Want Your Money, which warns about the dangers of socialism and the role of big government. So that should be interesting.