I'm deeply concerned about a rumored Noah Baumbach-Ben Stiller movie adaptation of Mr. Popper's Penguins. There are specific reasons I think Still would be dreadful as Mr. Popper, but I also think the book would be difficult to adapt for a number of reasons.
For one, the book occupies some very specific interstitial emotional space. Mr. Popper is disappointed in his marriage, and has dreams far beyond his educational experience and economic circumstances. When he gets a family of penguins, they overwhelm his resources. His attempts to help figure out a way for them to support themselves by starting a stage show with them ends extremely poorly. And at the end of the book, he gets what he wants, a chance to see the poles, but does so by sailing off and leaving his wife, something that as a child always seriously bothered me. But you can't hate Mr. Popper for any of this because his dreams are innocent, motivated by a deep and genuine sense of curiosity and wonder. It's a very difficult balance to pull off.
And I don't think Stiller can do it. He can do sour and wistful. But I have a really hard time seeing him embodying genuine innocence. In Zoolander he played sweet and stupid, but absolutely not innocent. His character was cynical, judgmental, and self-interested. Mr. Popper is none of those things. My stomach turns at the thought of Stiller ruining him.