Variety is reporting that Mark Waters is circling to direct 20th Century Fox’s Mr. Popper’s Penguins, based on the 1938 children’s book.
Actors possibly eyeing a role in the family film include Jim Carrey, Jack Black and Owen Wilson, adds the trade.
The story is about Mr. Popper, 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 the icebox. Before he knows it, the painter has a litter of 12 beaked birds. They eat voraciously, leading him to form Popper’s Performing Penguins, a stage act that goes on tour and creates mayhem at every stop.
Noah Baumbach was originally going to direct with Ben Stiller, but both have left the project.
Waters’ credits include Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, Freaky Friday and Mean Girls.
