‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’: Kat Coiro To Direct First Two Episodes

EXCLUSIVE: Kat Coiro (Marry Me) has been tapped to direct the first two episodes of The Spiderwick Chronicles, Disney+’s live-action series adaptation of the beloved fantasy books. She also will executive produce.

The Spiderwick Chronicles book series follows the Grace Family — twin brothers Jared and Simon, their sister Mallory and mother Helen — as they move into their dilapidated ancestral home and begin to unravel a dark mystery about their great-great Uncle who once discovered the secret and maybe foreboding faerie world existing parallel to their own.

Disney+ has described the series as a “modern coming-of-age story combined with fantasy adventure.”

The books, written by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, consist of The Field Guide, which was published in 2003, The Seeing Stone, Lucinda’s Secret, The Ironwood Tree and The Wrath of Mulgarath. They were followed by a second series of books including The Nixie’s Song, A Giant Problem and The Wyrm King. The Spiderwick Chronicles was previously were adapted into a film by Nickelodeon and Paramount in 2008 starring Freddie Highmore, Mary-Louise Parker, Martin Short and Seth Rogen.

The series will be produced by Paramount Television Studios and 20th Television. Aron Eli Coleite (Locke & Key) is showrunner and exec produces with Holly Black, Tony DiTerlizzi, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, D.J. Goldberg, and Julie Kane-Ritsch.

Coiro most recently directed feature rom-com Marry Me, starring Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson, and directed and executive produced six episodes of the new Marvel series She-Hulk, including the pilot. Her other TV series credits include Netflix’s Dead to Me, Showtime’s Shameless and FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, as well as Modern Family, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Mozart in the Jungle. On the film side, she’s next set to direct Sony Pictures’ The Husband’s Secret based on Liane Moriarty’s bestseller. She is repped by CAA, 3 Arts Entertainment and Brecheen Feldman Breimer.