Andrew Adamson is getting into the monkey business.
The director of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and co-director of Shrek is in talks to helm and co-write a live-action Curious George movie, Deadline revealed Monday.
The adaptation of the beloved children”s book series is in the works at Universal, which also produced the recent PBS animated animated series and 2006 toon feature take on the character.
This comes in the midst of Disney”s must-remake-all-our-animated-classics-into-live-action craze.
My gut reaction to this: No, just no.
Maaaybe this would work if it were a live-action/animation hybrid where George is the one animated character (animated to look like a cartoon character, I mean, not CG animated to look real). Yes, technology has come a long way from the frightening Jumanji monkeys to Andy Serkis” affecting performance as Caesar in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. But for playful, mischievous George who is wont to float away clinging to a bunch of balloons, he”s best kept in his sweet animated state.
Good news is a Curious George adaptation can and has been made without dialogue from George. The most ill-advised approach to this live-action version would be to go the talking animals route. Please don”t do to Curious George what you did to Marmaduke, Hollywood.
Adamson has dealt with talking animals in live-action before but in a fantastical setting, in his Narnia movies. Believably bringing a live-action Curious George to a real-world city would be a bigger challenge.
We”ll see if Adamson can get this doubter on board.