Warner Bros. To Produce Bone Movie
Mar 9, 2008 by Heath McKnight
What is Bone?
It’s the most successful indie comic book series, and probably one of my favorite trade paperback collections (or, I guess if you want to call it that, a graphic novel) of all time. I rate it up there with Iron Man: Armor Wars, Watchmen, and almost anything featuring Batman in the “looking awesome” department.
Anyway, Bone tells the story of three cousins (Fone, the hero; Phoney, the greedy one; and Smiley, the easy-going, not-so-smart one) who are run out of town after one of Phoney’s schemes backfires. They end up in a valley where they meet the beautiful human Thorn and her Grandma, Ben. It’s a huge, epic adventure that is very similar to Lord of the Rings and other great movies, books, you name it.
So now Warner Bros. wants to produce either a live action or animated version of it for the big screen, and I couldn’t be happier. After a visit to creator Jeff Smith’s site (www.Boneville.com), I learned on the message board a couple of years ago that at one point Nickelodeon was producing the film, but they wanted a pop song from a la Britney Spears or something, and Smith walked.
Good move.
Anyway, I started reading the black and white indie comics in 1993, because I had heard so many great things about it. I bought trade paperbacks (graphic novels) of around 7-8 issues, and instantly fell in love. Three TPBs equals one part of the “trilogy,” I believe. You should really pick up the books, which are being re-released in color. Or you can buy the One Volume Edition, which is the cheapest route. It’s in glorious black and white.
I bought the OVE back in 2005 and finished reading the book that way, and read it again last year. Heck, this news makes me want to re-read it one more time! It’s that great! Do yourself a favor and read Bone. There’s also a video game.
I’m an up-and-coming filmmaker, and my two biggest dream projects were to direct movie versions of Iron Man and Bone. I’m just happy that Iron Man is kicking butt with Jon Favreau directing, and I hope WB does Bone justice (make it animated, please!).
I’m excited about Bone the movie, and I hope after reading it, you will be, too.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Around the web:
Loading ...
No comments? For shame!
I’ve just finished the massive brick of a book that is the complete Bone and it is an absolute triumph of a story. I went into it expecting a fairly wacky, Looney Tunes-esque sort of thing and was pleasantly surprised to find it read more like ‘Looney Tunes as told by Tolkien.’
It’s funny, all through the book I was thinking to myself ‘man, this’d make a GREAT movie (or movies)!’ I’m not entirely surprised to see that it’s been optioned. In a way, I’m slightly sad that it’s WB that picked this up because my dream company to produce this flick would be Pixar — just imagine the rich world and characters of the Bone universe brought to life by them! It’d sure be a sight for sore eyes! Plus, Smith’s art in the book has a real animator’s eye for detail and of all the companies out there Pixar would definitely be the ones to bring that feel across to the movie.
Still though, so long as WB get the right team for this one it could be bloody huge. As for whether I’d like to see this live-action or animated? I’m sure it’s obvious by now that I want this totally animated…though I think it’d be interesting to see a mix of live action (the human characters) and traditional 2D animation (for Bone and his ilk) being used — the chances of this happening in this day and age of 3D animation are slim to none though.
i love bone! its one of my favorite indie comics. i hope they don’t screw the movie up.
I know for a fact that it is being made..animated…as we think…..You are gonna love it.
If you like Bone and JS’s artwork, Check out RASL. Not for the little kids.
IDV82
I think that if Bone is made into a movie (or series of movies), then it should be classically animated. There aren’t many classically animated movies today because of CGI, but I don’t think the bones will look good in 3D. But if they can make good looking 3D bones, then they could use stop motion or CGI, but not live action.
Also, it should be made into 2 or 3 parts. It’s too long for just one movie.
Word is that it’ll be a 3 part series (à la Lord of the Rings). With the earliest possible film coming out in 2013. Hope this isn’t just a rumor and the Bone movie doesn’t end up in development hell like The Goon movie