The DUFF’s Ari Sandel to direct Universal’s Monster High
Universal Pictures is calling for a director fresh out of high school (so to speak) to take on its adaptation of the popular Mattel franchise Monster High. According to The Hollywood Reporter filmmaker Ari Sandel, who helmed this past February’s surprise hit high school comedy The DUFF, has been assigned to take the line of macabre fashion dolls and fashion a movie out of them.
In the film, surviving high school is tough enough when your parents aren’t the most legendary monsters in history. Finding your real identity while figuring out what to do with your secret one is just part of what the teenagers who attend super-secret academy Monster High go through every day and night. The lineup of angsty teens include the progeny of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman (Draculaura, Frankie Stein, and Clawdeen Wolf, respectively).
Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage (TVs “Gossip Girl” and “The O.C.,” Endless Love) wrote the screenplay. Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (Hairspray, Chicago) will produce under their Storyline Entertainment banner, and Schwartz and Savage will produce for Fake Empire.
Universal Pictures has set an October 7, 2016 release date for Monster High.
