Seattle 'Up' house movie in works

Los Angeles: "Annie" director Will Gluck is set to co-produce the story of the famous Seattle house caused a media sensation due to its similarities to Pixar's 2009 animated film "Up".

At the centre of the film will be the house's owner Edith Macefield, who held out against developers and lived there, while a mall was built around it.

Fox Searchlight, the high-minded movie arm of Fox, has picked up the untitled project, said The Hollywood Reporter.

Gluck, is on board to produce the drama along with Jodi Hildebrand, his partner at Olive Bridge Entertainment. Gluck is not attached to direct at this stage.

The small farmhouse stood in Seattle perfectly fine for about 100 years as the city grew around it, until in 2006 when a big commercial development encroached on it, buying all the homes in the neighbourhood except the one holdout.

The home's owner stood her ground and turned down a reported offer of USD 1 million from developers, becoming a local hero.

Amazingly, Macefield struck up a deep friendship with the superintendent of the five-story construction project, Martin, who would check in on the old lady daily, even as the mall was slowly built around her home.

When Macefield died in 2008, she willed the house to Martin, the man supervising the building project that was trying to kick her out.

The feature project, intended to be a comedic drama, will tell the story of Macefield and her unlikely relationship with Martin, how each changed the other's life, and how living a life with dignity is a basic human need.

The building became known as the Up house due to visual similarities as well as similarities between Macefield and Carl Fredricksen, the elderly character from the movie, who refused to move as "progress" rolled in.

But while fans tied balloons to the house, mimicking the movie, Pixar has denied that Up, released in 2009 and in the works by 2004, was inspired by the story of the house.