One of my favorite comic book properties is Bone. Jeff Smith’s indie comic sensation is one of the single best examples of simple, elegant sequential storytelling that somehow bends influence equally from sources as widely different as Calvin and Hobbes and The Lord of the Rings.
It’s a fantastic story for kids and adults alike, charming and epic in equal parts, it’s like a Pixar film. It works on every level for every audience.
They’ve been trying to make movies from the material (and it would take at least three) for a while now. The most notable attempt was when Nickelodeon was trying to do it and idiotic studio execs decided they wanted a Britney Spears song on the soundtrack to help in marketing. This was quite firmly nixed by the creative types and we haven’t heard much about the project since.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Warner Brothers has acquired the rights and has assigned Patrick Sean Smith on script duties and PJ Hogan to direct. Hogan has directed the live action Peter Pan film from about 10 years back, as well as a bunch of other stuff that doesn’t exactly scream “He’d be perfect for Bone!”
The writer is behind a show called ‘Greek’ for ABC family.
The story follows the three Bone cousins, chased out of their hometown, but looking for a way back. In the meantime, they get drafted in a war that’s been slowly coming to a boil for a generation. I can’t recommend the books highly enough.
There’s no word in the article whether or not this is a standalone film or a proposed trilogy, as it should be. There’s also no word whether or not it will be animation, live-action, or a hybrid of the two. After seeing dreck like Alvin and the Chipmunks and Smurfs coming out, I think studios might be placing safe odds on the live-action/animation combination, not realizing that this source material demands a lot more reverence than those franchises. It also has a much wider appeal.
I hope it comes out well. This is one of my favorite series and I like it more than the source material of Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia combined.
If you haven’t read this series, now is the time. You can get the one-volume black and white edition for $25 on Amazon, or you can get the colorized Scholastic versions for about $7 each (there are 9). Either way, you’re in for a treat.