Only five days after Sony Pictures Animation added a Ghostbusters animated film to its long to-do list of films in development, the company is now delving into the nostalgic rivers of classic children’s shows for another project to add to the roster.
The Tracking Board has recently reported that Sony Pictures Animation and StudioCanal are teaming up to bring Danger Mouse to the big screen. Mega-producer Neal Moritz (The Fast and the Furious and 21 Jump Street franchises) will produce under his Original Film banner, while Toby Ascher will oversee for Fremantle Media.
Plot details are obviously skimpy for now (and no director or writer is attached currently), but the report indicates that the film will be an origin story for the character.
Readers of a certain generation (and who live in Britain) may remember that Danger Mouse was an animated series that originally ran from 1981 to 1992. Intended to be a parody of the British spy genre, specifically the James Bond films and shows like Danger Man, Danger Mouse centered on the titular character of a mouse who happened to live under the MI6 headquarters and is “the world’s greatest secret agent.” He is assisted in his exploits by Ernest Penfold and reluctantly reports to Colonel K, his boss.
Like with most other classic shows, Danger Mouse has recently been given a modern-day reboot for TV, which just premiered on CBBC last Monday and will soon arrive in the US on Netflix.
Danger Mouse joins an expanding number of animated film projects based off of classic animated TV properties. Paramount Pictures will be drafting up an Avengers-style team-up film featuring 90’s animated characters from Nick’s library of classic shows. Warner Bros. is setting up a number of projects (under its Warner Animation Group banner) that will update the likes of Scooby-Doo, The Jetsons, The Flintstones, and so on.
Not every film based on an animated TV property has been a smash hit (Mr. Peabody & Sherman), but Sony and company face the unique challenge of introducing the character to certain places where Danger Mouse isn’t exactly a well-known part of many people’s childhoods (the US, for example). Like with Shaun the Sheep, Danger Mouse might be a popular show in the UK, but that popularity only amounts to a cult status in other places. If Sony can manage to get the ‘origin’ part of the film just right, than Danger Mouse has the chance to get exposed to a wider, more international audience than ever before.
What do you think? Any thoughts on this news? Are you interested in a Danger Mouse movie?
Edited by: Kelly Conley
