Ben Mezrich, the author of Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions (the basis for the movie 21) and The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal (the basis for the movie The Social Network) has had his latest manuscript picked up by Fox for a movie adaptation before it’s even been published. The book, in true Mezrich fashion, will be called Woolly: The True Story of the De-Extinction of One of History’s Most Iconic Creatures. We’re guessing the movie will go for a shorter title, something like Jurassic Mammoth Park. (For simplicity’s sake, we’ll refer to the planned movie project as the Woolly adaptation.)

Details on the Woolly Adaptation

The book is about Harvard University’s George Church. Church is a geneticist who, in 2015, successfully pulled DNA from an extinct woolly mammoth and fused it with an elephant.

So, based on the title and basic premise, it’s easy to think that the Woolly adaptation is going to be more in the vein of something like the popular dino-franchise (with Deadline even asking ‘is it the next Jurassic Park‘). In addition, Oscar Sharp’s (who was just announced as the director for the movie) pitch for the project, which was instrumental in getting the project set up at Fox, seems to point this direction. Here’s how it was described by Deadline:

“Sharp’s pitch gave a heavy science grounding to a tale in which a geneticist and his team of young Harvard scientists set out to bring the woolly mammoth back from extinction. Their goal is to populate a huge tract of the Siberian tundra (known as Pleistocene Park) as a hedge against a ticking time bomb that’s hidden deep within the permafrost. What could go wrong?”

Now, apparently, Fox liked Sharp (a short film director for who this would be a feature film debut) for the job because they believe he’ll elevate the material to something “beyond a regurgitation of Jurassic Park.”

However, given that this is a non-fiction story, they could also be going for something a little more realistic, and a little less fantastical.

Sharp’s Previous Work

Sharp’s drawn the most notice for Karman Line, a short film in which a housewife begins to levitate. She is told will eventually rise to the Karman Line, which separates space from Earth.

So, what do you think? Would you be interested in seeing a Woolly adaptation? And would you prefer something more JP-ish, or something a little more grounded?

Featured Image: Charles Knight