'Little Miss Sunshine' Directors to Take on Mister Rogers Movie

The Wrap reports that 'Little Miss Sunshine' directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris will next helm an adaptation of Tim Madigan's memoir I'm Proud of You, which is being penned by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster.

Madigan's memoir will center on the friendship he developed with beloved children's television host Fred Rogers. The relationship lasted until Rogers' death in 2003, and helped Madigan through some difficult times in his own life.

Below is the book synopsis from Publishers Weekly, via Amazon:

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. Even if readers don't feel their day-to-day lives transformed by this luminous memoir, in times of grief or of loss they'll know which book on their shelf to turn to.

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