Menno Meyjes to direct "degayed" screen adaptation of <i>The Martian Child</I> (13494)

Filmmaker Menno Meyjes, who wrote and directed the John Cusack film Max, about a young Adolf Hitler, is stepping up to take care of New Line Cinema's The Martian Child, in which Cusack is set to star. Nick Cassavetes, who directed The Notebook for the studio, was slated to direct but fell out because of creative differences. Meyjes will rewrite and direct Martian, which is about a straight sci-fi writer (Cusack) who, wanting to be a dad, adopts a 7-year-old boy who may be an alien. It is based on a semiautobiographical novel by out award-winning writer David Gerrold. Jonathan Tolins (Twilight of the Golds) and Seth Bass wrote the original draft.