David Mamet to tackle Anne Frank

David Mamet, the Pulitzer prize-winning writer of Glengarry Glen Ross, is to write and direct a new version of The Diary of Anne Frank for Disney, Variety reports. Mamet will combine Frank's much-loved journal, a later stage adaptation by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, and his own take on the story.

The Diary of Anne Frank records the teenager's experiences over 25 months while hiding out with her family in a secret annexe in a canalside warehouse in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. It became an international bestseller and made her an icon of the Holocaust when it was published in 1947, two years after she died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. It has been translated into 60 languages and has sold more than 25m copies worldwide.

The story has made numerous appearances on stage (a musical version played in Madrid just last year), television (a critically lauded five-part BBC adaptation starring Ellie Kendrick as Anne and Tamsin Greig as her mother was broadcast in January) and film (most notably in 1959: Shelley Winters won the best supporting actress Oscar for her portrayal of Petronella van Daan, whose real-life counterpart, Auguste van Pels, was another occupant of the annexe).

According to Variety, producer Andrew Braunsberg spent a year working to get the rights to the story from Anne Frank's estate, and it was he who approached Mamet to gauge his interest. The writer, the son of parents of Russian-Jewish extraction, jumped at the chance to be involved. Mamet reportedly hopes to reframe the story known to millions as a rite-of-passage tale.

Mamet's recent credits as writer and director include the 2008 sporting drama Redbelt, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor as an idealistic ju-jitsu instructor whose financial woes force him to consider going into the ring in defiance of his principles, and the 2004 drama Spartan, about an investigation into a kidnapping of the daughter of a high-ranking US government official.

Frank adaptations

The Diary of Anne Frank (1955)

Dramatised by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, this play was a huge success on Broadway in the mid-50s, receiving both the Pulitzer prize for drama and the Theatre World award.  One review spoke of the play's "[invasion of] the privacy of the whole audience".

The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)

George Stevens's 1959 film adaptation of the play was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning three. Anne's father, Otto Frank, had been keen for Audrey Hepburn to play the lead role, but she declined and the part was taken by teenage model Millie Perkins.

Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001)

The Anne Frank Foundation refused to endorse this ABC miniseries and so prevented any quotes from Anne's diaries appearing. Despite this, Ben Kingsley won a Screen Actor's Guild award for his performance as Otto while Hannah Taylor-Gordon received both Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for her portrayal of Anne.

The Diary of Anne Frank: A Song to Life (2008)

Madrid hosted Un Canto a La Vida, a musical based on her life story and starring 13-year-old Isabella Castillo. The musical caused a rift between the Anne Frank Foundation, which supported it, and the Anne Frank Fund, which said the diarist's life was "no theme for a happy evening of song and dance". 

Girish Gupta