Ron Howard's animation debut, The Shrinking of the Treehorn, will now be an official Netflix release

Hollywood director Ron Howard who has previously made acclaimed films like Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, and more, is gearing up for his animation debut. Howard will be directing the adaptation of the 1971 children's book The Shrinking of Treehorn which was earlier developed by Paramount Pictures. Now, as per the latest update, the film has been picked up by Netflix to make it Ron Howard's second collaboration with the OTT platform.

Previously, Howard had directed Hillbilly Elegy in 2020 for Netflix which was an adaptation of the J.D. Vance novel of the same name. The Da Vinci Code director has also served as the narrator of the critically acclaimed show Arrested Development whose seasons four and five were a direct Netflix release, along with being the producer on the Andrew Garfield starrer Tick, Tick... Boom (another Netflix release). The Shrinking of Treehorn, the film, will be written by Rob Lieber who is known for credits like Peter Rabbit and Goosebumps 2: Slappy's Revenge.

The Shrinking of Treehorn is a 1971 book written by the best-selling children's author of the time, Florence Parry Heide. The book follows Treehorn, an affable kid who begins to shrink in size on an odd day but life around continues to remain completely normal. Much to his surprise, his parents fail to notice his current dilemma and instead discard each of his pleas, brushing off his pleas as bad behavior. The Shrinking of Treehorn is also popular for Edward Gorey's illustrations.

68-year-old Ron Howard began his show business as a child artist with shows like The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days, the latter proving to be instrumental in his early acting success. Following this stint, Howard would quit acting so as to focus completely on his direction and production career and his big break came in 1982 with Night Shift starring Michael Keaton and Shelley Long. Since then, he has directed several critical and commercial successes including the hugely successful adaptations of Dan Brown's books.