The Dangerous Book for Boys has found its lead boy, The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively learned.
Gabriel Bateman will star in the comedy created by Bryan Cranston and director Greg Mottola (Superbad, Keeping Up With the Joneses) and inspired by the best-selling guidebook of the same name. Amazon ordered the project straight to series last month, after it was first developed at NBC in 2014.
The show, co-produced by Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television, is a passion project for Cranston, who made it his first scripted project as a producer after his award-winning Breaking Bad run. Cranston and Mottola’s dramatic adaptation of the 2006 how-to book, written by Conn and Hal Iggulden, tells the story of Wyatt (Bateman) and his brothers coping with the death of their inventor father, Patrick. Patrick leaves his sons a copy of The Dangerous Book for Boys, which inspires a whimsical fantasy world that allows Wyatt to feel connected to his father while gaining skills that apply to his real life.
Bateman, 12, starred opposite Teresa Palmer in last year’s James Wan-produced sleeper horror hit Lights Out. He also recently recurred on Cinemax’s Outcast, playing a demon-possessed boy. His other credits include New Line Cinema’s Annabelle and CBS’ American Gothic (on which he was a series regular) and Stalker.
The rising actor is next set to star in Blumhouse’s reboot of beloved canine franchise Benji as well as indie drama Saint Judy as the son of Michelle Monaghan, who plays a real-life immigration lawyer fighting on behalf of female refugees.
Bateman is repped by Coast to Coast Talent Group and Hg5 Entertainment.
