•Netflix is adapting Gary Paulsen’s 1987 young adult survival novel Hatchet, according to a report by Variety. The film will be written and directed by Derek Cianfrance, whose previous films include the critically acclaimed Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines, and Roofman.
Andrew Mittman will produce the project through his company 1.21, which is behind Netflix’s . The adaptation is being created in partnership with Paulsen’s estate, which had kept the book out of the adaptation market until now and helped select Cianfrance for the role.
Mittman reportedly pushed for the film at Netflix after the streamer’s recent survival films Apex and Thrash both debuted with more than 36 million views this year.
Hatchet follows 13-year-old Brian Robeson, who is stranded alone in the Canadian wilderness after his plane’s pilot suffers a heart attack. With only the clothes on his back and a hatchet given to him by his mother, Brian must learn to fend for himself through hunting and building a shelter while reflecting on his parents’ complicated divorce.
The novel won the Newbery Honor Award in 1988 “for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.” Its first edition ran just 185 pages. Paulsen went on to write four sequels: The River (1991), Brian’s Winter (1996), Brian’s Return (1999), and Brian’s Hunt (2003). While most are sequels, Brian’s Winter is a “what-if” scenario that extends Brian’s initial time alone in the wilderness.
The book’s only prior adaptation was the 1990 TV movie A Cry in the Wind.
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