Disney+ Orders Pilot For Gender-Swapped ‘Holes’ TV Series

Louis Sachar’s Holes, the 1998 novel that became a hit Disney movie in 2003, is making a comeback. But this time as a TV series. Multiple sources confirm that Disney+ has ordered a pilot episode for the new Holes series.

Variety reports that Alina Mankin is on board as the writer and executive producer, while Liz Phang will take the reins as showrunner and executive producer. Drew Goddard will executive produce alongside Sarah Esberg. Walden Media, the company behind the original film, is producing the pilot and has reportedly been trying to adapt the book into a series for quite a while.

According to Deadline, the official description of the series reads “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.”

Fans of the original story will remember it centers on Stanley Yelnats, a boy sent to a juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn’t commit. At Camp Green Lake, Stanley spends his days digging holes in the scorching sun. But as he digs deeper, both literally and figuratively, he uncovers surprising connections between his own family’s past and the camp’s buried secrets.

The 2003 movie version of Holes starred Shia LaBeouf as Stanley, alongside an all-star cast including Sigourney Weaver, Khleo Thomas, Jon Voight, Tim Blake Nelson, Patricia Arquette, Dulé Hill, and Eartha Kitt. Louis Sachar himself wrote the screenplay, with Andrew Davis directing.

Here’s to hoping the TV series captures the magic and mystery that made so many of us fall in love with Holes in the first place.