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Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris have been hired to direct a film that centers on PBS' Mister Rogers. It looks like this is going to be a different film project than the one announced a few months ago. That one is called A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, and it came from a spec script written by Alexis Jolly. This movie is based on Tim Madigan’s memoir I’m Proud of You, and it was adapted by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster. The story follows "a jaded and distracted husband and father whose life changes when he meets Mister Rogers."
LIke many of you I grew up watching Mister Rogers, and he deserves a great movie based on his life. It looks like he'll get more than one which is cool.
He studied music and theology and became an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church before finding his way to TV. He wasn't happy with how television programming addressed children, so he decided to go into broadcasting to change it. He started as an errand boy at NBC and rose to host of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in 1968. The show ran through 2001. Rogers passed away in 2003 of stomach cancer.
Here's the description of the book:
Fred Rogers, the “gentle icon” of public television’s Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, taught generations of children and their parents how to express feelings and relate to others in a positive way. Rogers was also an ordained Presbyterian minister who regularly studied the important spiritual thinkers and shared his faith with an eclectic range of adult friends. Madigan, a journalist with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, became one of those friends after writing a piece on Rogers and Captain Kangaroo (Bob Keeshan) in 1995. Soon Madigan and Rogers were corresponding, and Madigan reprints here many of their letters and e-mails. They built a warm, supportive friendship, one that nourished Madigan through his self-doubt “Furies” and the difficult death of his dear brother. As Rogers grieved for Madigan’s losses and several of his own, the two taught each other about the beauty of giving and receiving “unconditional regard” from a beloved friend. So close did they become that readers may share Madigan’s shock at discovering that Rogers was gravely ill—too weak for a last visit before his death in 2003.
