Boom goes the dynamite!

From today's Variety:

New gig for 'Mountain' man
Fickman to direct 'Monster' movie for Disney
By MICHAEL FLEMING

Looking to match its Race to Witch Mountain director Andy Fickman with another family adventure film, Walt Disney Studios has attached him to helm Monster Attack Network.

Scott Elder and Josh Harmon have been hired to adapt the AIT/Planet Lar graphic novel, which the studio bought last summer.

The 2007 graphic novel focuses on a team of first-responders who guard the citizens of Lapuatu, a Pacific island that would be a paradise except for frequent attacks by giant monsters that rise from the sea. Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman wrote the graphic novel, illustrated by Nima Sorat.

Jason Netter is producing through his Kickstart banner. Disney views the film as a visual effects-heavy tentpole. built around an elite government agency's resolve to protect America's coasts from huge, rampaging monsters.

With Witch Mountain and The Game Plan, Fickman has now delivered two family-flavored hits for Disney, both with Dwayne Johnson in the starring role.

The studio is also high on Elder and Harmon, whose script Snow and the Seven was bought in a spec sale by Disney. Script reimagines the Snow White story by making her a British girl raised in 19th century Hong Kong who battles an evil force after she's trained to fight by seven Shaolin monks. Scott Rudin and Andrew Gunn are producing.

The scribes also wrote The Naked Jungle for Paramount.