Mouse Guard is not what people generally think of when they think “comic books.” Written and drawn by David Peterson, it follows sentient mice in a medieval setting on a world with no humans as they fight predators and protect their fellows from the various hazards of being nature’s McNugget. It’s a bit like Tolkien took a sideline in writing Peter Rabbit stories, as the whole thing is adorable yet sometimes very grim, and now Matt Reeves and Gary Whitta are planning to translate it to the screen.
Reeves is best known as the director of Cloverfield and the Planet of the Apes reboots, while Gary Whitta wrote Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The idea will be to pull a Jungle Book and use performance capture in a live-action setting. It’s worth noting these are regular-sized mice, in the comic, who float down rivers on boats made of leaves and fight cats several times their size, so performance capture and live action will be a bit trickier.
Still, it’s an interesting change of pace for comic book movies, and Mouse Guard has built a strong following over the years by being its own kind of comic. Reeves won’t be directing, but we’ll be curious to see how Peterson’s creation comes to the screen.
(Via the Hollywood Reporter)
