J.J. Abrams Solves a 'Mystery'

Where there's J.J. Abrams, there's fire. The dude behind Alias and Lost, who spun those successes into directing a pretty solid third Mission: Impossible and then spearheading Cloverfield and reinventing Star Trek, clearly doesn't aim low. More often than not, there's as much intrigue about his projects as there is in them. Minus Felicity, of course.

The Hollywood Reporter says that Paramount has acquired the rights to a New York Times article called "Mystery on Fifth Avenue" that Abrams and his Bad Robot production company will turn into a feature. The article just ran in The Times last week - on Thursday, in fact, and now Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky will turn the Penelope Green article into a screenplay.

What is the mystery in the "Mystery on Fifth Avenue"? How weird is this: Back in 2003, Steven Klinsky and Maureen Sherry bought this 4,200 square foot apartment and had it remodeled to include "hidden compartments, messages, puzzles, poems, codes and games for their four preteen kids." Little bastards. I had a refrigerator box to play in.

The man the parents hired to turn their apartment into the Haunted Mansion, a guy named Eric Clough, turned the apartment into a sort of scavenger hunt that reportedly included historical figures, a fictional book, and even a soundtrack. Some of the hidden surprises were added without the parents knowledge. Cool.

So you can see that this story has an inherent quality that opens the doors pretty widely for J.J. Abrams. As for the writers, Forbes and Wolodarsky recently wrote the summer comedy, The Rocker, starring Rainn Wilson. We don't have a director named yet, but he sure will have a fun sandbox to play in.

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[Orinn]

photos of just how cool this apartment is and how much effort was put into this
http://gizmodo.com/photogallery/scavengerhunt/1001994272