The Bad Guys, which debuted with the first book in December 2016, centers around four anthropomorphic “bad guys” consisting of Mr. Wolf, Mr. Shark, Mr. Snake, and Mr. Piranha. The quartet make attempts to perform good deeds in hopes to stop being perceived as bad by the public. More than 2.2 million copies of the series are currently in print.
Adapting the book from page to film will be in the hands of screenwriter Etan Cohen, who previously worked for DreamWorks as one of the writers of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Cohen was also a writer for Mike Judge’s animated shows like Beavis and Butt-head and King of the Hill, as well as for action comedies like Tropic Thunder and Men in Black 3. Blabey will also serve as one of the executive producers of The Bad Guys movie.
DreamWorks saw critical and commercial success last year with Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, adapted from another Scholastic series, so it’s no surprise the book publisher would let them let DreamWorks adapt more stuff from their library.
We don’t have a director or a release date as of now, but despite not having read the books myself, I feel pretty confident that DreamWorks can deliver something hilariously enjoyable and faithfully adapted with The Bad Guys. If they succeeded with Captain Underpants, then there’s a good chance they’ll do well with this one too.
