By August 1999, the film was greenlit by Disney, who agreed to produce it with singer Whitney Houston's BrownHouse Productions, and Cabot's manuscript was forwarded to potential screenwriters. "The Princess Diaries" was Houston's first feature film production venture, and her studio's second film after "Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella". Chase developed the script with screenwriter Gina Wendkos. 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, maintaining that "The essence of the story, or the message, of staying true to yourself ... still comes through". Garry Marshall was enlisted as director, with Houston and Chase producing alongside Mario Iscovich. Marshall was invited to direct the project while he himself had been pitching ideas to Disney executive Nina Jacobson. 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". 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. Furthermore, the director admitted to being fond of "female wish-fulfillment and empowerment movies"; Houston and Chase hoped that "The Princess Diaries" would be BrownHouse Productions' first in a series of female-led wish-fulfillment films, originally planning to remake the musical film "Sparkle" (1976) as a follow up"." However, Marshall nearly declined to work on the film due to a typo in the original treatment that read ""The Princess Dairies"", joking, "I thought it was a movie about privileged cows!"