EXCLUSIVE: The sweater wearing children’s TV icon Fred Rogers is the subject of A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood, an Alexis Jolly spec script that has sold to Justin Nappi and Kevin Turen’s Treehouse Pictures. Nappi and Turen will produce with Treehouse’s Juliet Berman co-producing. Specific details on the storyline are being kept under wraps. Jolly has been a staff writer on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and pitched the idea to his APA agents, who helped it find a home at Treehouse.

Said Nappi: “Fred Rogers was such an inspirational man for so many people. His keen ability to find the good in anyone, or anything, will make for a truly inspiring cinematic experience. In literally shaping the world around him to fit into his own unique perspective, he created what is arguably the most influential American children’s television show of all time.”

Fred Rogers came to television after studying music and theology and being ordained a minister in the Presbyterian Church. Unsatisfied with how television programming addressed children, Rogers decided to go into broadcasting to change it. He started as an errand boy at NBC, and rose to host of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in 1968. The show ran through 2001. It won four Emmys and Rogers got a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 1997. Jolly is repped by APA, and Melissa Rogal at Lichter Grossman Nichols Adler.