Director Tim Burton seems like he’s in a pattern of bouncing back and forth between glossy quirkfests and shallow exercises in pop-Gothicry, and now it’s time to scare something up post-Frankenweenie, even as he works on finishing off Dark Shadows. His new target? A book called Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children that involves creepy children with unusual powers, storytelling grandfathers, and aging locations textured with decay…. right up that particular alley of Burton’s. Shit’s even got “peculiar” in the title!

Here’s the official book synopsis:

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

…and here the book’s cover:

So obviously not a huge stretch of the imagination for whoever put this in front of Burton. In any event, the book’s been acquired by Fox to be developed by Burton. He’ll help choose a scribe to transform the novel into a screenplay, and apparently plans on keeping the director’s chair open as an option for himself. If you’re more curious about the book itself, CHUD’s own Shawn C. Baker did a review of sorts on his blog that you should check out.

With Dark Shadows currently keeping fans nervous –even with some folks out there even guardedly optimistic that Burton might pull out something special with that one– I can’t imagine this will be met with the usual apathy reserved for Tim’s wheelings and dealings. It’s easy to forget that he’s quite literally one of the most commercially successful directors to ever live, but it’s much harder to remember that he used to have an edge and a fresh vision that hadn’t been overprocessed to the point of being a parody of itself.

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Source | Deadline