'Shakespeare' Spanked by MTV Films

The young adult novel Spanking Shakespeare will get the celluloid treatment, courtesy of Paramount, MTV Films, and writer Daniel Lagana. Before you let your mind wander too far, Spanking Shakespeare is not a euphemism for self-pleasure. It's the story of a high school kid named Shakespeare Shapiro, who "chronicles every mortifying detail of his quest to get into college and find a girlfriend in his memoir," or so summarizes Variety. The book was written by Jake Wizner, an eighth grade teacher in New York. Lagana's a name you may not know, but he's written a few TV pilots. The project is in good hands, though; the producers, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Mark Canton, also oversaw The Spiderwick Chronicles. No director has been named at this stage, and we're quite a ways off from a production date, as well.