Not all kids are interested in history and classic literature, but most kids are very interested in cleverly melded the two, offering both an educational experience and a chance to see a Jack Russell terrier embrace each episode’s theme in full costume. It’s a winning formula, and it’ll be making a comeback soon on the big screen.
As Deadline reports, Universal Pictures and Mattel Films have joined forces for a live-action Wishbone movie, with Peter Farrelly (Green Book) coming aboard as a producer. No director has been named yet, but newcomer Roy Parker will pen the script, which Mattel Films’ Robbie Brenner hints will “take the beloved dog classic into a new direction with a modern reimagination of the franchise.”
The original series won multiple Emmys and a Peabody award, so presumably its basic premise — in which a daydreaming dog named Wishbone imagines himself into classic stories, including Oliver Twist, Faust, Frankenstein, multiple Shakespeare and Sherlock Holmes tales, The Odyssey, a series of African American folktales, and The Count of Monte Cristo, to name but a few — won’t change too much.
While Wishbone feels like a potential slam dunk, the Deadline article also takes a moment to reminds us of what else is on Mattel Films’ slate of projects in development — in case you’d forgotten (as we had) that movies based on Magic 8 Ball and View-Master toys are still on the way.