Kali Bailey to Adapt L. Frank Baum’s “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus” for Monarch Media

Monarch Media has hired Kali Bailey to adapt L. Frank Baum’s classic children’s book The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus for a new live-action feature film, Deadline reported in an exclusive announcement published Aug. 20. The project centers on Bailey’s screenplay adaptation of Baum’s story, with Monarch Media developing the feature as a film based on the early 1900s source material.

Baum’s book, first published in 1902, traces Santa Claus’s beginnings and rise to his seasonal role. In the narrative, Santa is presented as an abandoned baby who is drawn into a magical forest setting near Oz. From there, the story follows his journey before he ultimately becomes the figure associated with spreading peace, according to the description of the book referenced in the reporting.

The adaptation effort is positioned as a live-action feature, bringing Baum’s fantasy framework into a format aimed at broad family audiences. While details about casting, production timelines, and whether the film will adhere closely to Baum’s story beats were not provided in the report, Monarch Media’s engagement of a screenwriter indicates that the project is moving into script development for a studio-level release.

Bailey’s involvement places the screenplay under a single creative lead at an early stage, with the Monarch Media production slated to translate the book’s distinctive tone, including its mix of wonder and moral purpose, into film narrative structure. The reporting emphasized that the project is based on Baum’s text and that the story’s arc, from Santa’s origin to his mission of peace, is a central throughline in the adaptation.

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus has long been recognized as part of the broader Baum canon, which includes Oz-related works. In this case, the adaptation’s framing includes the “near Oz” magical forest element described in the book’s premise, suggesting Monarch Media intends to draw on the familiar world-building atmosphere that audiences associate with Baum’s imaginative settings.

As the screenplay develops, the next steps for the project would typically include finalizing the writing draft, moving into creative production assignments, and determining how the film will structure the early-origin material with the later focus on Santa’s peace-bringing role. Deadline’s report did not specify when Monarch Media expects to begin filming or when the studio would target release.

With the project still in development, rights and creative alignment will remain key factors for how Baum’s early 20th-century children’s story is handled for modern audiences. For parents and guardians, the live-action framing also indicates that the adaptation could be positioned for mainstream family viewing around the holiday season, though no distribution plan was included in the announcement.

The Monarch Media announcement, delivered through Deadline’s entertainment industry coverage, underscores continuing studio interest in reviving legacy children’s literature for contemporary film audiences. Bailey’s screenplay adaptation of a 1902 classic, centered on Santa Claus’s origins and purpose, sets the baseline for how the studio will build expectations for a new live-action interpretation of the Baum story.