Bass will adapt the tome, which details McCourt's 30-year career teaching English and creative writing in New York's public school system, beginning in 1958.

Bass said the feature version will focus on the changes in the teacher's character over several decades, as opposed to his 1995 screenplay "Dangerous Minds," which focused on a single class over a school year. His other credits include "Rain Man," for which he won an original screenplay Oscar, "Stepmom" and "Waiting to Exhale."