In the fall of 1993, Canadian animation studio Nelvana signed a multi-year deal to produce five animated feature films in collaboration with Paramount Pictures, with Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall producing; the first two began production the following summer, at a cost of over US$20 million each.[1][2] Three of the projects were based on books by E. B. White (The Trumpet of the Swan), Clive Barker (The Thief of Always) and Graeme Base (The Sign of the Seahorse); an original production called Mask Vision was also in the works.[3] However, none of the films were produced in this deal.
Shortly after the release of the 1995 Elmo Aardvark album, Will Ryan was approached by Nickelodeon Movies about starring the Elmo character in a feature film. Ryan and writer Phil Lollar developed a film treatment for a mockumentary tracing Elmo's fictional history as a cartoon character, from pre-film origins to the present day some hundred years later. The mockumentary, potentially titled The Elmo Aardvark Story, would feature live-action interviews with figures who would add historical credibility, such as golden-age animator Ward Kimball; these would be interspersed with clips of the Elmo cartoons that had supposedly been produced through the ages, animated in period-appropriate styles.[4] Designer Leslie Cabarga prepared promotional art, while Fayard Nicholas, Joanie Sommers, and "Weird Al" Yankovic were in talks to contribute to the soundtrack. However, negotiations with Nickelodeon administrators became slow-moving, and after a lengthy "development hell" period, the project fell through.[4]
In August 1998, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies acquired the rights to produce an animated film adaptation of the Bone comics.[5]Jeff Smith, author of the Bone comics, stated in a 2003 interview that Nickelodeon had insisted on the Bone cousins being voiced by child actors and wanted the film's soundtrack to include pop songs by the likes of N'Sync. Smith's response was that nobody would insert pop songs in the middle of The Lord of the Rings or The Empire Strikes Back and therefore pop songs should not be placed in Bone either.[6] The film was then developed at Warner Bros. under their Warner Animation Group banner instead. However, in 2019, Netflix purchased the rights to turn Bone into an animated series, which was later cancelled in April 2022 during a reorganization of Netflix Animation.[7][8][9]
In 1998, Nickelodeon offered Hey Arnold! creator Craig Bartlett a chance to develop two feature-length films based on the series: one as a TV movie or direct-to-video and another slated for a theatrical release. Nickelodeon asked Bartlett to do "the biggest idea he could think of" for the theatrical film. Albie Hecht, who was president of Nickelodeon at the time, suggested to Bartlett about making the theatrical feature as a spiritual sequel/follow-up to the episode "Parents Day", and have Arnold try to solve the mystery of what happened to his parents. Though after successful test screenings of the made-for-TV movie titled Arnold Saves the Neighborhood, it was decided that it would instead be given a theatrical release in 2002, under the title of Hey Arnold!: The Movie to attract the attention of the public. Around this time, Hecht also asked Bartlett to produce a special one-hour 'prequel' episode titled "The Journal" that would serve as a lead-in to the second movie. The episode debuted on November 11, 2002. But due to the disappointing box office results of the first film, Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie was cancelled and ended up leaving the original series with an unresolved cliffhanger ending. The project was later revived as a two-hour TV film that debuted on November 24, 2017.
A film based on The Nome Trilogy books was in the works from 2001 to 2011. DreamWorks (now DreamWorks Animation) acquired the film rights in 2001,[10] and announced plans to combine all three books into a single film. It was to be directed by Andrew Adamson.[11] In late 2008, Danny Boyle was attached to direct Truckers,[12] but the project fell apart due to financial problems.[13] The following year, the Slumdog Millionaire's Oscar-winning screenwriter Simon Beaufoy was hired to work on the project.[14] Plans to move forward with DreamWorks' adaptation resurfaced in 2010 with the announcement that Legend of the Guardians screenwriter John Orloff would pen the script for director Anand Tucker.[15] Tucker was later announced to direct another DWA film Trolls,[16] which was planned to be partially based on a Pratchett novel,[17] before he was replaced by Mike Mitchell.[18]
In February 2002, a sequel for Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius was reported in development for a summer 2004 release.[19] Producer Albie Hecht reported to The Los Angeles Times that the sequel "would be made on the same budget as the first, but with a new batch of inventions and adventures in Jimmy's town of Retroville." On June 20, 2002, The Hollywood Reporter reported that writer Kate Boutilier had signed a writing deal with Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures to write a sequel, but it never materialized.[20] The film was cancelled because the writers couldn't agree on a story and Alcorn later stated in an interview that "once the TV series came out, there wasn't a lot of incentive to make a movie when fans could simply watch Jimmy Neutron for free at home."[21]
Feature film
Imaginary Friend
In March 2002, it was announced that Nickelodeon Movies would produce Imaginary Friend, a Gary Ross-helmed live-action/animated hybrid about a boy and his imaginary friend who takes him from the real world to an animated fantasy world. Written by Anne Spielberg, the film would’ve reunited Ross and Spielberg after scripting the 1988 Oscar-nominated Big. Would've been produced by Nickelodeon and Ross' Larger Than Life.[22][23]
As early as 2004, Omation Animation Studios and Nickelodeon announced their intention to bring Mighty Mouse (a property held by CBS Corporation) back to the big screen with a CGI Mighty Mouse feature film that was tentatively scheduled to be released sometime in 2013.[24] This film never materialized and the project's fate was unknown until in 2019, when it was confirmed that the project would be revived by Paramount Animation, and that Jon and Erich Hoeber were announced to be the writers for the film.[25][26]
In 2005, DreamWorks started to develop a stop-motion film with Aardman Animations called Crood Awakening, an adaptation of the book called The Twits by Roald Dahl in caveman times.[27][28] It was cancelled because of the split between the two companies in 2007.[29] Both companies have now made their own prehistoric caveman movies, The Croods for DreamWorks and Early Man for Aardman, but neither of these two films are related to said book.
Feature film
Route 66
In September 2005, DreamWorks announced an original film, with Mulligan, a giant golf ball statue standing on a side of Route 66 who goes on a journey to save a giant blueberry statue named Betty when she gets taken away. The concept came from comedian Harland Williams, alongside Conrad Vernon and Rej Bourdages. Williams and Vernon were slated to pen the screenplay.[30] In 2009, Williams revealed in an email inquiry that the film had been shelved.[31]
Feature film
It Came From Earth!
In September 2005, DreamWorks announced they were developing an original film with Sheira & Loli's Dittydoodle Works creator Cory Rosenberg. The film would have been an alien invasion spoof revolving around a planet of Martians who are visited by human astronauts. Josh Lobis and Darin Moiselle were attached to write the script.[30][32]
In 2005 or 2006, Butch Hartman considered making a theatrical adaptation of his animated television series The Fairly OddParents after the show's initial cancellation in 2006,[vague] to be produced by Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures. The film was to be animated much like the series as well as previous Nickelodeon fare such as the Rugrats trilogy and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, but was scrapped due to a management change at Paramount although the script was already written. Despite this, Hartman expressed interest in releasing the film for DVD someday, and stated that the script could serve for another TV movie of the show. The series ended on July 26, 2017, and Butch Hartman left Nickelodeon in early 2018 before moving to Sony Pictures Animation to plan any direct-to-video sequels to the original film,[33][34] seemingly ending any chances of the film happening.[35]
In 2006, Paramount obtained the film rights to The Smurfs comics by Peyo and were planning to make a film based on the characters with Nickelodeon Movies. It was described to be an "epic-comedic fantasy", like The Lord of the Rings meets The Princess Bride.[39] Early animation footage was leaked on the internet in early 2008.[40] The film never came to be until Sony Pictures Animation bought the rights thus turning it into the 2011 film of the same name.[41]
While it was never announced by the studio (although Jeffrey Katzenberg briefly joked about one in 2007[42]), comedian Jerry Seinfeld, the producer, writer, and star of 2007's Bee Movie, said that he has no interest in making a sequel. During a Reddit AMA in June 2016, a fan asked about the possibility for Bee Movie 2. Seinfeld responded:
I considered it this spring for a solid six hours. There's a fantastic energy now for some reason, on the internet particularly. Tumblr, people brought my attention to. I actually did consider it, but then I realized it would make Bee Movie 1 less iconic. But my kids want me to do it, a lot of people want me to do it. A lot of people that don't know what animation is want me to do it. If you have any idea what animation is, you'd never do it.[43]
In June 2007, author Neil Gaiman reported in his journal that he had pitched the idea of InterWorld to DreamWorks back in 1996, but the executives were confused on the concept. Along with Michael Raeves, they later published their work into the novel, in which DreamWorks Animation had optioned into producing an animated film.[45]
Feature film
The Book of Life
DreamWorks initially optioned to make The Book of Life back in 2007, but production was cancelled due to "creative differences" with director Jorge Gutierrez.[46] The film was eventually made at 20th Century Fox Animation and Reel FX Creative Studios and was released by 20th Century Fox (which also had a distribution deal with DreamWorks Animation at that time) in 2014 to critical praise and was nominated for a Golden Globe for best animated feature.
DreamWorks Animation acquired the film rights to Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians in June 2008.[47] By January 2011, Brandon Sanderson, the author of the novel, revealed that DreamWorks did not renew the rights.[48]
In March 2009, studio had rights to the children's book Dinotrux, originally planned as a CG-animated film. It wasn't until 2015 when the studio produced an animated series based on the books for Netflix. The series ended up lasting for eight seasons from 2015 to 2018.[49]
Feature film
Gil's All Fright Diner
By December 2009, the studio had set screenwriters Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris (Kung Fu Panda) to write a film adaptation of the book, Gil's All Fright Diner, with Barry Sonnenfeld attached to direct the feature.[50] In 2011, the book's author A. Lee Martinez was working with DreamWorks on a project based on an original idea, and not on Gil's All Fright Diner.[51] In March 2013, Martinez expressed uncertainty for any film adaptation: "Your guess is as good as mine. It's all a matter of convincing someone with the clout necessary to make it happen".[52]
Announced on June 2, 2011, Paramount Pictures had acquired the rights to produce an animated film, via Paramount Animation to make this, of the Penny Arcade one-off strip The New Kid which was published on October 29, 2010. The strip was one of three mini-strips which featured a cinematic opening to a larger story left unexplored.[53]The New Kid is about a boy who's moving to a new planet with his family because of his father's career.[54] The script was written by Gary Whitta and would have been produced by Mary Parent and Cale Boyter.[55]
At PAX Australia in 2016, during a Q&A session, Holkins revealed that changes at Paramount resulted in the movie rights being returned to Penny Arcade and the project canceled. He did note, however, that Whitta's script was complete and the project could move forward with another production company in the future.[56]
In November 2011, Steven Spielberg announced a sequel to the 2011 film The Adventures of Tintin and was planned to be released sometime in the future.[57] As of 2019, there have been little to no info about the film, but Peter Jackson is still involved with the project.[58][59]
Paramount Animation acquired the rights to an untitled sci-fi pitch from screenwriter David Frigerio in October 2015, which was described as "tonally Cars set in space".[63]
On January 27, 2016, a crossover film involving various classic Nicktoons characters was reported to be in development. Jared Hess was attached to direct, as well as co-write with his wife Jerusha. The film was said to be similar to Who Framed Roger Rabbit.[64] In a later interview in September 2016, Hess said that the script was complete and submitted for approval.[65] No word on development has been reported since.
Prior to Wonder Park's release, Paramount Animation announced a television series based on the film, titled Adventures in Wonder Park, to debut on Nickelodeon after the film's theatrical release.[67] Although a trailer for the series was attached to the Blu-ray release of the film, and its first season, consisting of 20 episodes, was completed between 2019 and early 2020, there have been no updates from Nickelodeon on the project as of 2023. The animatic of the pilot was later posted online in December 2022.[68]
On July 16, 2018, Variety reported that a new Rugrats movie was in production alongside a revival of the series with a release date originally set for November 13, 2020. The movie would've been a live action/CGI hybrid, to be written by David Goodman and would be produced by Paramount Players, a division of Paramount Pictures.[69][70][71] On February 28, 2019, it was announced that the movie would be pushed back to January 29, 2021.[72] On April 26, 2019, it was announced that David Bowers would be set as director, along with Karen Rosenfelt as producer.[73] However, on November 12, 2019, the film was pulled from Paramount's release schedule, in favor of WWE Studios' Rumble, which was delayed from a July 2020 release.[74]
In August 2018, Paramount Animation and Weed Road, in partnership with Ustwo Games, announced plans to develop a live action/CGI hybrid film based on the indie game Monument Valley, with Patrick Osborne slated to direct. It was anticipated that the film would feature live actors exploring the computer generated settings based on the game. Osborne stated "I’m privileged to be handed the reins to Ida’s mysterious kingdom, to play in her world of impossible architecture where seeing things differently is everything".[75]
As of 2019, an animated film adaptation of the children's book The Shrinking of Treehorn directed by Ron Howard is said to be in development. The animation would be done by Animal Logic and distributed by Paramount Pictures under its Paramount Animation label.[76] By April 9, 2021, the film's release date was scheduled for November 10, 2023.[77] However, on May 16, 2022, it was announced that the film had been acquired by Netflix with Howard's Imagine Entertainment as its production studio.[78]
^McRoberts, Kenneth (1995). Beyond Quebec: Taking Stock of Canada, p. 175. McGills-Queens University Press. ISBN0-7735-1314-0. Retrieved June 22, 2006.
^Hartman, Butch (February 9, 2018). "Why I Left Nickelodeon". Retrieved February 10, 2018 – via SoundCloud.
^Hartman, Butch (February 8, 2018). "Why I Left Nickelodeon". Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved February 9, 2018 – via YouTube.
^Sanderson, Brandon (June 2, 2008). "Two Super Huge Announcements!". Brandon Sanderson. Retrieved November 16, 2012. The book I mentioned last week is ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS. It has been optioned by Dreamworks Animation, though I can't go into details about who is working on the project at the moment, I've been very impressed with the work of the director and producer involved.
