Caffeinated Clint
There’s still no sign of a big screen venture for either “Dora the Explorer” or “Peppa Pig” – strangely enough!? – but thank godness someone has the skids to bring “Captain Underpants” to film. And no, I’ve never heard of the Bonds thumper either.
According to Deadline, Dreamworks Animation has acquired the rights to the 8-book children’s book series by Dav Pilkey.
I refer to Deadline’s breakdown of the books :
The books revolve around a couple of precocious fourth graders named George Beard and Harold Hutchins. Looking to get back at nasty, student-hating principal Mr. Benny Krupp, the boys hypnotize the principal and cause him to become Captain Underpants. He’s a superhero who is nice and helpful to children and manages to get into all kinds of misadventures with the fourth graders shadowing him to make sure he doesn’t get hurt. The principal has no recollection of his heroics when he returns to normal. Pikey has completed eight volumes with a ninth in the works, Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers. Scholastic publishes the books.
Dreamworks had been keen to snag the rights to the books since 1997, when “Captain Underpants” first flashed his nickers – but author Pilkey wasn’t interested in selling ’em.
DWA CEO Bill Damaschke said : “I know he’d been approached many times, and finally, Kassie Evashevski at UTA and Amy Berkower at Writers House phoned us and simply said, ‘He’s ready,’. There’s a great anarchic combination of kid and adult humor, and George and Harold are these terrific mischievous characters. And we felt that hypnotizing the principal is one of those great ideas. We’re all big fans of the book.”
