Hardwicke Finally Ready to 'Monkey' Around

Comedy adaptation is moving forward

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Tuesday, January 23rd 2007 at 12:19 AM

Back in September 2005 we interviewed Catherine Hardwicke and she told us she was working on directing an adaptation of a book called "The Monkey Wrench Gang" based on Edward Abbey’s classic and today Production Weekly is reporting that things are finally moving forward on the project.

The screenplay was adapted by William Goldman and Christian Forte, which follows George Hayduke, an ex-Green Beret and Vietnam vet, who returns to the Southwestern desert after the war to find his beloved canyons and rivers threatened by industrial development. On a whitewater rafting trip down the Colorado River, Hayduke joins forces with three others who share his indignation and want to do something about it: feminist saboteur and Bronx exile Bonnie Abzug, wilderness guide and outcast Mormon Seldom Seen Smith, and libertarian billboard torcher Doc Sarvis, M.D. Together they venture off to become eco-raiders, waging war on the strip miners, clear-cutters, and the highway, dam, and bridge builders who are turning their natural habitat into a wasteland. The misadventures of this motley group make for an uproarious blend of chaos, conflict, and comedy.

Hardwicke told RopeofSilicon back in September that, "Guys like Robert Redford, Sean Penn, Dennis Hopper, all these guys have been very interested in trying to get this movie made now we hope we're going to actually do it here at Sony," she continued, "It's a comedy, a crazy action. We are getting a draft from William Goldman (Princess Bride, All the President's Men, Misery, Maverick), that came in from New York today. Then we'll make the formal offers. We have a lot of cool people really excited about it."

Hardwicke last directed The Nativity Story, which will be on DVD March 20.

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