This is a rather late post, as the news broke almost two months ago, back in October, but somehow it evaded my attention until now; DreamWorks
have won a bidding war to acquire the film rights to Dav Pilkey's brilliant, funny and superb Captain Underpants book series.
The fantastic, popular kid's books had been not up for film acquisition for quite some time, due to Pilkey's reluctance to see his creation ruined or tampered with by big studios. Nonetheless, the studio behind Shrek will be bringing the underwear wearing hero to the screen in the near future,
Empire tells us.
The famed studio's CCO, Bill Damaschke, told us about the studio's ambition for the project:
"We are thrilled that Dav has decided the time is right to turn his beloved property into a movie and we look forward to bringing the greatest Waistband Warrior of all time to the big screen at DreamWorks Animation!"
The brilliant Pilkey added his own words about his sudden change of heart:
"I never wanted to do a Captain Underpants movie in the past because, frankly, I worried that a movie might not be able to properly convey what I was trying to do with the books. Then I saw How to Train Your Dragon and the Kung Fu Panda movies. I loved the subtle way that morality and personal responsibility were handled in these very funny and exciting adventures. I felt that DreamWorks Animation would be the perfect home for Captain Underpants,"
No release date or time frame has currently been announced for the project, although I'll be right near the front of the line whenever it does turn up. The full press release from DreamWorks can be viewed
here.
