Disney executive vp production and development Brigham Taylor will oversee the big-screen version of the tongue-in-cheek manual, which gives today's coddled youth instructions on potentially hazardous activities, such as how build go-carts and make a bow and arrow. It also provides trivia, historical anecdotes and advice on life that have inspired interest from fathers and nostalgic middle-aged men.
"Dangerous," first published in the U.K. in May 2006, has held the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the New York Times and Publishers Weekly best-seller lists since its May 2007 stateside release and sold more than 1 million copies worldwide. The Collins/HarperCollins release also won the British Book Award for book of the year. Its success has inspired two upcoming books, "The Daring Book for Girls" and "The Dangerous Book for Dogs," a satire by several writers from "The Onion."
The book is the latest feather in Rudin's full cap. The literary-minded producer, who has a production deal with Disney and its specialty division, Miramax Films, has scored mainstream hits like Paramount Pictures' "Failure to Launch" and upscale Oscar winners including Miramax's "The Queen." His upcoming book adaptations include Dreamworks/Paramount's "Revolutionary Road," with Evamere and BBC Films, and Miramax's "No Country For Old Men," which earned acclaim at this year's Festival de Cannes.
It should be interesting to see how Rudin approaches this project. A monster hit in England before it was revised slightly for the U.S. market, the book has a somewhat random collection of chapters about "dangerous" things that boys should learn how to do: making a bow and arrow, building a go cart, learning helpful Latin phrases, palming a coin, tying knots etc. Who Rudin chooses as a screenwriter will no doubt give some helpful clues as to whether this will work or not.
Producer Scott Rudin will 
