'Frozen' director set to adapt 'A Wrinkle in Time'

The woman behind the hit Disney animated movie "Frozen" is hoping to make box office magic again.

​Jennifer Lee, who wrote and co-directed the flick about the ice queen, will now be adapting the children's book "A Wrinkle in Time" into a movie for the studio.

"A Wrinkle in Time" is the first in a series of four books written by Madeleine L'Engle that revolve around a brother and sister whose father mysteriously disappeared. They're forced to travel through time to find him.

Variety, who first reported the news, says Lee "impressed Disney executives with her take on the project, which emphasizes a strong female-driven narrative and creatively approaches the science fiction and world-building elements of the books."

Notice the wording "her take" there - and this isn't the first time Disney has attempted a movie adaption of the hit book.

Disney originally planned a television miniseries around "A Wrinkle in Time," but the footage was later re-edited and then released as a made-for-TV movie in 2003. (ABC Distribution Co. / "A Wrinkle in Time")

And back in 2010, Disney decided to revisit the book and announced it was working with Jeff Stockwell - who wrote the screenplay adaption for the movie "Bridge to Terabithia" - on adapting "A Wrinkle in Time" for the big screen. (Buena Vista Pictures / "Bridge to Terabithia")

But that script never went anywhere.

A writer for The New Yorker suggested it might have been because "A Wrinkle in Time" often makes banned book lists because the author "dotted her text with Biblical quotations, and foregrounded her belief in ecumenism - a particularly controversial passage in 'A Wrinkle in Time' placed Jesus alongside Gandhi, the Buddha, and Einstein in the fight against evil."

Every decade the American Library Association compiles a list of the 100 most frequently challenged books during those 10 years. From 1990 to 1999, "A Wrinkle in Time" placed 23rd. It dropped to No. 90 for the 2000-2009 list.

The announcement that Lee has been given the reins comes just a week and a half before the big-screen adaption of "The Giver" - another book that has been on banned-book lists since its publication - hits theaters.

Back in January, Entertainment Weekly reported it took producer and star Jeff Bridges 20 years to get the 1993 novel made into a movie.

We're not too surprised that Disney has tapped Lee to write the screen adaption for the controversial book, though.

"Frozen" became the highest-grossing animated film ever back in March when it surpassed the $1.063 billion mark to beat out "Toy Story 3." (Via The Huffington Post)

The film also won Oscars for best animated feature film and best original song earlier this year.

She's also the writer behind the animated 2012 movie "Wreck-It-Ralph," which Rolling Stone says"smashed the opening-weekend record for a non-Pixar, in-house-made Disney cartoon" with $49.1 million.

No director has been named for this newest adaption of "A Wrinkle in Time."