Ari Folman to Write and Direct Animated Anne Frank Feature

Yesterday, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Ari Folman has come on board to write and direct an animated feature based on the life and diary of Anne Frank. Folman will adapt the dairy into a family-friendly animation piece.

Anne Frank is one of the most widely discussed victims of the Holocaust, and her personal diary has sparked several plays and films. Born in 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany, Frank and her family went into hiding during the horrible period of Jewish persecution by the Nazis. Eventually, Anne and her sister Margot were transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they died of typhus in March 1945

“Bringing the Anne Frank Diary to all screens is a fantastic opportunity and challenge,” Folman said. “There is a real need for new artistic material to keep the memory alive for younger generations.”

According to Variety, "The filmmakers have been granted complete access to all of the archives of the Anne Frank Fonds Basel, founded by Anne's father Otto Frank as well as to all the branches of the Anne Frank Fonds worldwide."

Folman wrote and directed the 2008 documentary Waltz with Bashir and the film adaptation of The Congress. He is also a writer for several television episodes of Na terapiji. He earned an Oscar nomination in 2008 for Waltz with Bashir.

Purple Whale Films, the production company for the film, said to Deadline that this is the first time a director and producer team have been granted full access to all the archives of the Anne Frank Fonds Basel.

In other recent Hollywood news, Universal Pictures has hired Breaking Bad writer Gennifer Hutchison to adapt the teen fantasy novel The Red Queen.