I haven’t seen the documentary Sherman’s March, but Jay talked about it on the Film Junk Podcast back in July and it sounded quite unique. It was supposed to be a historical film about the American Civil War, but along the way director Ross McElwee ended up turning the camera around on himself, making it an autobiographical look at his own life, his recent break-up with a girlfriend, and the people he meets while retracing General Sherman’s steps. It won the grand jury prize at Sundance in 1986, and has since been deemed “culturally significant” by the U.S. Library of Congress.

So here’s the weird part. Apparently director Steve Carr (Daddy Day Care, Dr. Dolittle 2, Paul Blart: Mall Cop) is a huge fan of the movie, and eventually talked McElwee (who was understandably hesitant) into letting him remake the movie as a fictional feature. He says he hopes to turn it into a quirky indie comedy in the vein of Little Miss Sunshine and Sideways. Carr had this to say: “For me, this is an opportunity to explore the other nature that I have in terms of filmmaking… I love making big studio movies and doing broad comedy where people get hit in the crotch, but this is another side of me. It’s more cerebral and introspective.” It seems to me that a fictionalized version would probably lose everything that made the original so special, but hey what do I know? At least Carr’s aspiring to do something a little bit different for once. Good for him!