I was finally going to sit down and write my article about Kevin Smith this afternoon, but I got wrapped up in the Olympic Opening Ceremonies on the CBC. Great show as always.
February's always a crappy time for movies, but there's one coming out today that I"m mildly curious about, and that's the new movie version of Curious George.
There was an article in today's Edmonton Journal about it. Ron Howard's company Imagine Entertainment bought the movie rights back in 1990, and have been trying for the past 16 years to do a movie version. At one point it was going to be live-action, with Curious George being a real monkey. Then, it was going to be a live-action/animation blend, with George being all special-effects. Then, it was going to be all CGI. But it finally opens today, in traditional, hand-drawn animation.
Over the past 16 years, 42 different writers took a crack at it. Pat Proft, writer of the Naked Gun movies and the first Police Academy wrote a script. The producers admitted that, while it was very funny, it didn't quite capture the feel they wanted. My hero, Brad Bird, writer/director of The Iron Giant and The Incredibles, was once attached to direct. The producers called Bird's script "brilliant," but once Pixar greenlit The Incredibles, Bird quit the project.
Anyway, it finally comes out today. Curious George was directed by Matthew O'Callaghan, an ex-Disney animator who directed a lot of their stright-to-video sequels. Will Ferrel does the voice of the Man in the Yellow Hat, and voice-acting legend Frank Welker provides George's monkey sounds.
No comments:
Post a Comment