A remake of Holes, the 2003 movie starring Shia LaBeouf, that was looking to genderswap the story to feature a female lead and male villain, has been scrapped at Disney+.
A series based on the film, and the 1998 novel it was based on, was ordered at the beginning of the year, with The Baby-Sitters Club and Lethal Weapon star Shay Rudolph set to take over LaBeouf’s role, while Greg Kinnear would play the movie’s villain. The cast also included Aidy Bryant as camp counselor Sissy, Noah Cottrell as kitchen employee Kitch and Flor Delis Alicea, Anire Kim Amoda, Iesha Daniels, Sophie Dieterlen, Alexandra Doke and Maeve Press as Hayley’s fellow campers at Camp Yucca.
The series pilot was set to be directed by Jac Schaeffer, who would be executive producing along with Drew Goddard, Sarah Esberg, Mike Medavoyl, Walden Media, and Shamrock, which holds the rights to Holes. The synopsis of the remake read:
“In this reimagining of the beloved 1998 book from Louis Sachar, a teenage girl is sent to a detention camp where the ruthless Warden forces the campers to dig holes for a mysterious purpose.”
Although Disney has been on a run of movie-to-series remakes, reboots and sequels, such as 2022’s Cheaper by the Dozen, Willow, Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, and several others, it seems that the line has been drawn and not all planned remakes go ahead. While there has been no reason given for the cancellation of Holes, it is probably for the best.
‘Holes’ Was Adapted into a Great Movie in 2003
Released in 2003, Holes is a prison comedy-drama based on the novel by Louis Sachar, who also wrote the screenplay for the movie. The story revolves around Stanley Yelnats VI, played by Shia LaBeouf, who is set to a juvenile detention camp in Texas after wrongfully being arrested for theft. There he discovers that the camp is run by a cruel warden who forces the inmates to dig holes in a dried lake bed in an attempt to find a buried treasure.
The film boasted an impressive cast, which, alongside LaBeouf, included Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, Patricia Arquette, Tim Blake Nelson, Dulé Hill and Eartha Kitt. It scored reasonably well with both critics and audiences, landing 78% and 76% respectively on Rotten Tomatoes. The film was praised as being able to “entertain the young audience it was made for as well as the parents along for the ride.” Several audience reviews called it “a rare time a movie feels just as magical watching now as it did years ago.”
However, several reviews note that the movie delivers a “truly original” tale, which is something that a genderswapped remake would clearly not do. Perhaps with that in mind, it is only right that the project has been buried…at least for now.
Release Date
April 18, 2003
Runtime
117 minutes
Director
Andrew Davis
Writers
Louis Sachar
