‘Black-ish’ Producer Gail Lerner To Direct ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’ Reboot For Disney+

A few days after Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed plans to reboot several classic franchises, including Cheaper by the Dozen, we’ve now learned that it will be a Disney+ film, and not a series. Gail Lerner who has produced hit shows such as Black-ish, Happy Endings and Will & Grace is in talks to direct. This was a scoop we had ready for Monday, but my former-colleague at HN Entertainment was also on top of it, so we decided to take the exclusive tag off this post. Black-ish and Grown-ish creator Kenya Barris and Jenifer Rice-Genzuk will pen the script and Donald J. Lee Jr. (The Greatest Showman, The Art of Racing in the Rain) along with Barris will serve as producers. Along with Cheaper by the Dozen, there will also be reboots for Night at the Museum, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Home Alone, as revealed by Disney CEO Bob Iger last week during the companies earnings call. Based on the 1948 book of the same name Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey published Cheaper By The Dozen, a biographical novel based on their own family upbringing in the 1920’s. In 1950, the book was adapted into a feature film by Twentieth Century Fox featuring Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy. 50 years later Fox would reboot the film with Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt as Tom and Kate Baker, and would be followed up by a sequel in 2005. Both films would gross a combined $310M at the global box office. It is likely the film will debut on Disney+ in Fall 2020, but that is not confirmed as of yet. Disney+ will launch in the U.S. on November 12, 2019.