Anyone who has ever read Judith Viorst's 1972 children's book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" (illustrated by Ray Cruz) probably felt a pang of recognition and probably had their heart warmed considerably by the time the 32 pages were up. But there probably weren't all that many of you who thought, "Man this would be an amazing feature-length live action film." Well... it is now, and judging by the trailer (via Yahoo Movies), it's going to be a pretty cute movie too.
While the original book focused almost exclusively on Alexander (played in the movie by Ed Oxenbould), the movie encompasses the entire family as they experience one collectively lousy 24-hour period. This includes Alexander's parents (Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner), his older brother (Dylan Minnette) and his older sister (Kerris Dorsey). From the looks of the trailer, things get considerably wacky (is that a kangaroo?) before being contained within the familial bonds of togetherness and understanding. Say it with us now: awwwwww!
The movie, which is being released by Disney and was put together by Disney and Jim Henson Pictures, was once scheduled to be "The Kids Are All Right" director Lisa Cholodenko's follow up to that movie. Things didn't exactly work out that way (maybe she was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day) and she was replaced by indie director Miguel Artera, which is another, equally interesting choice for such mainstream material. Although it doesn't matter much who is behind it - this movie looks surprisingly cute and funny and we kind of can't wait to see it.
"Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" opens October 10.