Jonathan Demme Turns Dave Eggers Hurricane Katrina Story Into Animated Film

Jonathan Demme (Rachel Getting Married, Philadelphia, Silence of the Lambs) acquired the rights to the book Zeitoun, which he plans to make into an animated film.

Zeitoun is a non-fiction story written by Dave Eggers about a Syrian-American resident of New Orleans named Abdulrahman Zeitoun. When Hurricane Katrina struck, the Zeitoun family stayed in the city, and Abdulrahman paddled through the flooded streets in a canoe, offering help and supplies to fellow residents in need. But days after the storm hit, Zeitoun abruptly disappeared, and his family eventually discovered that he had been arrested without a trial. Eggers spent three years researching and writing this book, which chronicles what happened to Zeitoun in the context of the political and cultural atmosphere of New Orleans and the U.S. in the aftermath of Katrina.

Demme was first introduced to Eggers’ work when his son recommended he read his novel, What is the What, a book about the experiences of a refugé of the Sudanese war in America. When Demme read Zeitoun, he sent Eggers a complimentary note through mutual friends, and optioned the movie rights soon after. Inspired by the cover art, a line drawing of Zeitoun in his canoe, Demme told the New York Times that he wanted to create Zeitoun in a hand-drawn animated style.

This is not Demme’s first creative foray into the topic of Hurricane Katrina. He spent several months on location in New Orleans in 2006, filming a series of PBS documentaries called Right to Return: New Home Movies from the Lower 9th Ward.

No word yet if Eggers will pen the script for Zeitoun. Along with director Spike Jonze, he recently co-authored the screenplay for Where the Wild Things Are.

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