After becoming a long-running word-of-mouth best seller in 2008, The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (Harper) was acquired for adaptation as a movie by Universal in 2009,
Then things slowed down. In 2011, a star was announced (Patrick Dempsey, then in the hot show Grey’s Anatomy). In 2014, Dempsey
moved to a producing role and a director was named.

All of that has changed. Late last month, Disney picked up the rights and the script is in rewrite. The Hollywood Reporter notes, “The good news for Stein fans is that the material may be better suited at Disney, which has a long history of canine pics, ranging from Old Yeller to Beverly Hills Chihuahua.”

Actually, the book’s fans are probably hoping the movie will be unlike either Old Yeller or Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

In other canine movie news, Universal hasn’t given up on dogs. It was also announced that they have hired Lasse Hallström to direct A Dog’s Purpose, based on the bestselling book by W. Bruce Cameron, and have set a release date of Jan, 27, 2017.

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