After much rumour and consideration, it seems Cameron Crow will be making a comeback with We Bought A Zoo, based on the Ben Mee experiences at the Dartmoor Zoo.
The Coming Soon site pieced together snippets of information: 20th Century Fox has set the release date for December 23, 2011 (sniffing a Marley and Me type hit); and Variety carried the information that production designer Clay Griffith had been booked on Cameron Crowe’s We Bought a Zoo (Clay was set decorator on Cameron’s Jerry Maguire).
What clinched it was that IMDb Pro had Crowe and Griffith linked to the project, too.
The story is a poignant tale of Guardian columnist Ben’s purchase of a 12-bedroom mansion on Dartmoor for his wife, two children, brother and 76-year-old mother. The new home also included the run down 30-acre Dartmoor Wildlife Park. As the animals in the zoo improve, Mee’s wife is diagnosed with terminal cancer and becomes increasingly ill.
As yet there are no stars signed up to the project. Ben Stiller has been rumoured to be involved, and the Dartmoor Zoo people would like Johnny Depp in the role – he is familiar with this neck of the woods, what with rumours of him having a home in Devon, and with the filming of Alice in Wonderland at Anthony House, Torpoint.
The script has been written by Aline Brosh McKenna (of The Devil Wears Prada fame), but according to Ain’t it Cool, Cameron is having a tinker with it himself.
This will be Cameron Crowe’s first film since Elizabethtown in 2005
