Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden are indie film sweethearts. Half Nelson was a minor triumph and while Sugar (our review) didn’t seem to have quite the same amount of love, it was a film worthy of a little attention. The duo are now ready to take on their next challenge and their pick sounds nothing short of fantastic.

First Showing has news that Fleck and Boden are adapting Ned Vizzini’s young adult novel “It’s Kind of a Funny Story”. It’s the story of a 15 year old boy named Craig who is having a hard time coping with life. When illegal drugs, his family, his shrink and Zoloft don’t make him feel better, he checks himself into the hospital where the only space available is in the adult psychiatric wing. There he meets a whole lot of people with problems bigger than his own but he also meets Noelle, a girl his own age. I’m going to assume that somewhere in there he manages to get over his depression and maybe even falls in love.

I’m not familiar with Vizzini’s novel, thought it’s something I’ve now added to my reading list, but if anyone can translate this onto the big screen with limited quirk and lots of heart, Fleck and Boden are certainly two people to do it.