By August 1999, the film was greenlit by Disney, who agreed to produce it with singer Whitney Houston's BrownHouse Productions,[1] and Cabot's manuscript was forwarded to potential screenwriters.[2] The Princess Diaries was Houston's first feature film production venture,[17] and her studio's second film after Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella.[18] Chase developed the script with screenwriter Gina Wendkos.[19] Although Cabot did not write the screenplay herself, she worked closely with Chase to discuss changes deemed necessary to translate the story from page to screen,[6] maintaining that "The essence of the story, or the message, of staying true to yourself ... still comes through".[20] Garry Marshall was enlisted as director, with Houston and Chase producing alongside Mario Iscovich.[19] Marshall was invited to direct the project while he himself had been pitching ideas to Disney executive Nina Jacobson.[19] Connecting with the material, Marshall found the story enjoyable for entire families, and was particularly drawn towards the idea of "a young girl turning into a woman and realizing that she can have a positive effect on the world".[19] Marshall elaborated, "I wanted to do a fairy tale for the fairy tale crowd, which are the young girls and boys", hoping that the project to crossover to adult audiences as well.[21] Furthermore, the director admitted to being fond of "female wish-fulfillment and empowerment movies";[22] Houston and Chase hoped that The Princess Diaries would be BrownHouse Productions' first in a series of female-led wish-fulfillment films,[10] originally planning to remake the musical film Sparkle (1976) as a follow up.[24] However, Marshall nearly declined to work on the film due to a typo in the original treatment that read "The Princess Dairies",[25] joking, "I thought it was a movie about privileged cows!"[19][22]