Jeff Smith's "Bone" : The Movie

[TurtleTitan97]

Mark Osborne(Kung Fu Panda) is currently set to direct it:

At the same time, Adam Kline ('Artemis Fowl') has been tapped to co-write the script with Osborne.

Mark Osborne, fresh off directing The Little Prince, has come aboard to helm Warner Bros.’ animated adaptation of Bone, the Eisner-winning comic series from Jeff Smith.

At the same time, Adam Kline has been tapped to co-write the script with Osborne. The moves re-energize the adaptation for the studio, which first picked up the rights around 2008.

Dan Lin’s Lin Pictures is producing with Animal Logic’s Zareh Nalbandian with the goal of making a trilogy of animated feature films.

The comic told of three Bone cousins — Fone Bone, Phoney Bone and Smiley Bone, all small, bald and humanlike creatures with big noses — who are separated and lost in a vast uncharted desert after being run out of Boneville. One by one they find their way into a deep forested valley filled with wonderful and terrifying creatures.

The comics were published from 1991 to 2004 and then rediscovered by a new and more mainstream generation when Scholastic began releasing them in graphic novel form.

“Bone is very special and unconventional because it blends elements together that you don’t necessarily expect — soft, little comic characters and epic high-stakes fantasy adventure," Osborne tells The Hollywood Reporter. "To carry this into the cinematic realm presents both an opportunity to represent what readers of all ages have loved about the series, while pushing animated storytelling into exciting and different areas."

Osborne will act as an executive producer, as will Lin Pictures’ Mark Bauch.

"As source material goes, Jeff's epic is something of a unicorn: mythic, whimsical and pure in equal measure," says Kline.





P.J. Hogan (Muriel’s Wedding) was previously attached to direct while Patrick Sean Smith, who created the ABC Family show Greek, was writing the script.

Osborne has twice seen his work nominated for an Oscar. He snagged nominations for his 1999 animated short, More, and for 2008’s Kung Fu Panda, the latter which he co-directed with John Stevenson. Panda kicked up $631 million at the box office and launched a key franchise for DreamWorks Animation.

Osborne is now angling for another nomination with Little Prince, his well-regarded adaptation of the timeless all-ages novel that was released this summer by Netflix.

Osborne is repped by UTA. Klein is repped by UTA and Circle of Confusion.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hea...ic-bone-947977

[Utrommaniac]

Oh my god, FINALLY some progress!!! How long has it been since anything was said about the progress of this movie?

I f***ing love Bone. I still wear the now-discontinued Smiley Bone and Bartleby shirt that I got for Christmas in 2012 . I have a Bartleby plush that I got for Christmas last year. The Art of Bone, all of the Scholastic releases (including Tall Tales and Rose - which I would like the original release of as well), The Search for the Spark novels, the original Stupid, Stupid Rat Tails, the handbook, and a few of the original issues found at Half Price Books (and desperately wanting the others). What Utroms are to me now are what Rat Creatures were in high school. I still love those hairy SOBs and still want to learn more about them. My parents took me (and my brothers) out of school for a week when I was a sophmore in high school just to take me to see the real Old Man's Cave that inspired the one in the series - plus it helped to visit my dad's family in a time that we never really got to visit a lot. With a homemade Phoney Bone Star shirt (which I would still like to have the official version of).

I even made a message board that has pretty much gone the way of UK kitchen ad spam. (Please join and make some conversation...please)

To finally get some news on the movie is exhilarating. And with the director of Kung Fu Panda on it? To summarize my feelings:


And finally:
TRIL-O-GY! TRIL-O-GY! TRIL-O-GY!

[DestronMirage22]

Whoa, Bone's gonna get a movie?! YES!!!

[Utrommaniac]

That's been a plan for a very long time; there just hasn't even been any progress on it that I've known about for three to five years.

Nickelodeon also tried a whack at it, but Jeff Smith abhorred what they were trying to do with it, so he put it to a stop. At least one comic artist knew what he was doing with Nick.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

Ugghh. I remember hearing about this five years ago and really dreading it, because I have no confidence that they'll make an faithful or even good adaptation.
I hope Jeff really is able to scrutinize the filmmaking process. Last time they tried to make a Bone movie, they tried cramming Britney Spears into it.

Don't get me wrong - I LOVE Bone - just not the idea of someone bastardizing it.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Stupid, STUPID rat creatures!!!

[Utrommaniac]

Jeff Smith is involved in the process the last time I heard, and he seemed pretty happy with what they were doing...even if it was in CG. The part about that worried me about that was how the Bone cousins themselves would look like, but damn, would it do justice to the Hocking Hills environment that inspired the Valley. And I bet the Rat Creatures would look phenomenal too.

Fun fact: "Stupid, stupid Rat Creatures" was one of the first memes of the internet. It's more than just a dinosaur of a meme, but a tiktaalik of a meme. And I hope one day that it will come back.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Originally Posted by Utrommaniac

Fun fact: "Stupid, stupid Rat Creatures" was one of the first memes of the internet. It's more than just a dinosaur of a meme, but a tiktaalik of a meme. And I hope one day that it will come back.

I didn't even know it was a meme. It's just the one thing I remember of Bone.

Hmmm. I just finished marathoning all the Usagi Yojimbo TPBs... methinks perhaps I should read Bone next?

[TheSkeletonMan939]

I wonder if this series will lean more towards Lord of the Rings or Madagascar in terms of tone.

[Utrommaniac]

I think Jeff Smith would strangle someone if it had a Madagascar-like tone . Heck, I would probably strangle someone. It's always been described as Scrooge McDuck meets Lord of the Rings, so it probably would be more Lord of the Rings.

Spoiler:

I mean, s*** gets real in the sixth book. Thorn's parents had a gruesome fate. A man who was disfigured by dragons gets sliced in half by a scythe in the last book. Madagascar tones absolutely will not fly. The only way you can screw this up is with Nick...or Michael Bay...or Fred Wolf.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

Jeff Smith published BONE independently, and that's why it's as awesome as it is.
Bringing BONE to film means dunking it in corporate garbage and ramming it through test screenings, and I'm very worried that they'll want to take the easy route of making it a laugh-filled fun fest all the way through, with the Hooded One being an antagonist who won't be expected to be taken seriously.

[Utrommaniac]

He still has some involvement with the production. And I have trust in the KFP director. And so does Jeff Smith apparently. On the Boneville website, he's described as "one of the nicest guys in Hollywood". So far, he Mark Bauch, and Adam Kline the only person on the film team that I'm aware of, and they seem to have a good understanding of how "unconventional" the story is. Which should work just fine.

“Bone is very special and unconventional because it blends elements together that you don’t necessarily expect — soft, little comic characters and epic high-stakes fantasy adventure," Osborne tells The Hollywood Reporter. "To carry this into the cinematic realm presents both an opportunity to represent what readers of all ages have loved about the series, while pushing animated storytelling into exciting and different areas."

Osborne will act as an executive producer, as will Lin Pictures’ Mark Bauch.

"As source material goes, Jeff's epic is something of a unicorn: mythic, whimsical and pure in equal measure," says Kline.

They know what they're doing so far.

Bone is still pretty funny, even in the later portions. There's an entire section of story dedicated to an old lady racing cows, for cripes sake.

THIS happens


It's a perfect balance of silly and serious...much like Kung Fu Panda. I maintain that Bone as a whole is pretty level with the second film, especially considering what the Hooded One has in common with Lord Shen.

[plastroncafe]

I am holding out the GREATEST OF HOPES that they get a stellar voice cast for this.

Long have I waited for the glory that is Gran'ma Ben to be animated in all her awesomeness!

[TigerClaw]

Originally Posted by TheSkeletonMan939

Jeff Smith published BONE independently, and that's why it's as awesome as it is.
Bringing BONE to film means dunking it in corporate garbage and ramming it through test screenings, and I'm very worried that they'll want to take the easy route of making it a laugh-filled fun fest all the way through, with the Hooded One being an antagonist who won't be expected to be taken seriously.

It'll probably get toned down to be more family friendly, I bet it'll have the same tone as the Kung Fu Panda movies.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

They had better have the balls to recreate the Kingdok death scene more or less accurately.

[Utrommaniac]

I'm actually a little disappointed with how things went with Kingdok, to this day. Not as much as before, though. It fit the story, but I would have liked some more meat to his isolated journey waiting for death to come. Still wish we had seen him and the Great Red Dragon have a fight or something.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

I can get that. But maybe having such a vapid existence helps one understand why he committed suicide by cop, so to speak. He was not a great warrior, and his leadership role was a farce; he was a puppet. Any 'meat' would have risked eradicating the shame he felt.

[ProactiveMan]

I can't wait.

[Utrommaniac]

Originally Posted by TheSkeletonMan939

I can get that. But maybe having such a vapid existence helps one understand why he committed suicide by cop, so to speak. He was not a great warrior, and his leadership role was a farce; he was a puppet. Any 'meat' would have risked eradicating the shame he felt.

I agree very much. But, except for him going through the caverns, between getting his tongue torn out by Rouge Ja and meeting Thorn at the Crown of Horns, there wasn't really a lot to indicate his humiliation. He just disappeared for a while. Even when Thorn cut his arm off in the third book, it seemed that he had a lot of control. That's really the "meat" I was referring to.

Maybe the original issues have some more detail on that, since there are several scenes that are scripted totally different from what Scholastic has. And even one page that was removed entirely, as it was a Noodle Incident on one of Phoney's grosser schemes. (Accidentally letting the Boneville sewage to drain into the river and then hosting a swimming contest in it).

Seriously though, I invite a lot of the Bone readers here to my message board, though I don't think it'll be much traffic.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

Originally Posted by Utrommaniac

Maybe the original issues have some more detail on that, since there are several scenes that are scripted totally different from what Scholastic has. And even one page that was removed entirely, as it was a Noodle Incident on one of Phoney's grosser schemes. (Accidentally letting the Boneville sewage to drain into the river and then hosting a swimming contest in it).

Woah, really? I knew that there were some changes but I thought that it was cosmetic stuff (fixing errors, etc.)
Is there a list somewhere of all the changes made?