While no deal has been struck, director Noah Baumbach and Ben Stiller are considering an adaptation of the 1939 Newbery Honor Book, Mr. Popper’s Penguins.
Written by Richard and Florence Atwater in the late 1930s, the book has been a favorite of grade school teachers and readers. According to Variety, both the filmmaker and the actor are in discussions with 20th Century Fox about the film.
Here’s more from the article: “‘Mr. Popper’ is the tale of a house painter whose dreams of Arctic exploration prompt him to write letters to real explorers. One of them sends him a penguin, which he keeps in an icebox. Soon, Mr. Popper receives a female penguin from a zoo and before he knows it, he has a litter of 12 beaked birds.”