The project had been in development for some time with Sony, but the movie giant halted production in June 2015 due to concerns about its $63 million budget, says The Hollywood Reporter.
Luckily for fans, however, Paramount Pictures puts no such price on the power of nostalgia.
In taking up the reins Paramount has even enlisted the help of acclaimed British writer Abi Morgan (Suffragette and The Iron Lady) to work her magic on the script.
The television version of Little House on the Prairie was written and directed by Michael Landon, who also played the part of Charles Ingalls — otherwise known as “Pa” — the patriarch of the Ingalls family. Daughter Laura was played by Melissa Gilbert.
The show itself was an adaptation based loosely on the nine books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder about her upbringing and life as a pioneer in the 1800s.
The television program drew the majority of its inspiration from the fourth book in Laura’s nine-book-series: On the Banks of Plum Creek, which took place in Walnut Grove, Minnesota.
Fans of the book series already know that the Ingalls family did not actually live in Walnut Grove, where the TV series Little House on the Prairie took place, for very long. The family moved on and eventually settled in De Smet, South Dakota, in 1879.
The last five of the nine books of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series are set there, rather than Walnut Grove.
When they did arrive at Walnut Grove, where the TV series took place, Charles Ingalls served as the town butcher and justice of the peace while they were there, but then accepted a job with the railroad in 1879, which took them to the Dakota territories.
There is no word yet on who will make up the cast for the new movie, or whether any of the original actors will make cameos.
It’s unlikely, however, that Melissa, below, will make an appearance, judging by her newfound passion for politics.
Melissa is running as a Democrat in the race for a Michigan seat in the U.S. House of Representatives with financial backing from a slew of Hollywood heavyweights.
Sadly, her on-screen dad, played by Michael Landon, died in 1991 from liver and pancreas cancer at just 54.
