Disney+ Cancels Gender-Swapped Reboot of 2003 Movie Series

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Disney+ has cancelled its planned TV series based on Louis Sachar’s book, Holes, which was also the basis for the 2003 Disney movie. They had filmed a pilot episode earlier this year, but won’t be continuing with the show.

The show was going to be reimagined with a teenage girl as the main character, focusing on her experiences at a detention camp instead of the original story’s male lead. Shay Rudolph was cast to play Hayley, the central character, and Greg Kinnear would have played the role of the camp’s warden.

The cast also featured Aidy Bryant as counselor Sissy, Noah Cottrell as Kitch the kitchen worker, and Flor Delis Alicea, Anire Kim Amoda, Iesha Daniels, Sophie Dieterlen, Alexandra Doke, and Maeve Press, who all played campers alongside Hayley at Camp Yucca.

Alina Mankin wrote the pilot episode, while Liz Phang served as showrunner and Jac Schaeffer directed. The executive producers included Mankin, Phang, Drew Goddard (through Goddard Textiles), Sarah Esberg, and Mike Medavoy (through Shamrock, the company that owns the rights to the book Holes).

Andrea Massaro of Goddard Textiles was a co-executive producer on the pilot. Walden Media, the company behind the original film, produced it, with 20th Television as the studio.

The movie Holes, directed by Andrew Davis, featured Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, Patricia Arquette, Tim Blake Nelson, and a young Shia LaBeouf in his first film role. The film centers on Stanley Yelnats IV (played by LaBeouf), who is wrongly accused of stealing and sent to a juvenile detention camp in Texas.

I recently watched this movie where a group of kids are sent to a camp and made to dig holes all day. It’s run by this really intense warden, Walker, played by Weaver, and it turns out she’s not just being mean for no reason. She’s actually obsessed with finding the buried treasure of this legendary outlaw, Kissin’ Kate Barlow, who’s portrayed by Arquette. The whole digging thing is connected to her search – it’s a pretty wild story!

The 2003 film was popular with both critics and moviegoers. On Rotten Tomatoes, it received a 78% approval rating based on 138 reviews, with an average rating of 7 out of 10. Critics there described it as “imaginative, intelligent family entertainment.” Metacritic gave the film a score of 71 out of 100 based on 28 reviews, indicating generally positive feedback. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave it an “A” grade.

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2025-12-13 14:14