Just yesterday we learned that Warner Bros. has put two untitled animated projects on their release schedule for 2017 and 2018 respectively, and now we have a fairly good idea what one of those mystery movies is going to be. News has broken that the studio is now developing a brand new feature based on the classic cartoon series The Flintstones.
In their report about the development, Variety says that writer/producer Chris Henchy - who is best known for his work alongside Will Ferrell and Adam McKay as part of Gary Sanchez Productions - has been tapped to write the script, while his producing partners will be doing just that. The Flintstones movie will presumably follow the same basic formula as the original Hanna-Barbera cartoon and focus on the life of Fred Flintstone, the blue coller bronto crane operator at the prehistoric Slate Rock and Gravel Company, and his family and friends.
Of course, this isn't the first time that the Flintstones have made their way to the big screen - albeit last time it was done in live-action. The 994 director Brian Levant helmed an adaptation of the long-running, award winning series that starred John Goodman, Elizabeth Perkins, Rick Moranis, Rosie O’Donnell, Kyle MacLachlan, Halle Berry and Elizabeth Taylor. Remember?
Despite getting terrible reviews, the film was a huge hit, grossing $341 million worldwide on a $46 million budget. This turned out to be rather unfortunate, given that it eventually led to the creation of The Flintstones In Viva Rock Vegas, a film that got reviews equally as bad as its predecessor and wound up being a huge box office flop, making just $59 million worldwide on an $83 million budget. We can only pray that things go better this time around.
Given the aforementioned 2017 and 2018 release dates, it will probably be a long, long time before we actually get to see anything from the Flintstones movie, but it's not hard to see why Warner Bros. is so excited about making more animated films. Even with Captain America: The Winter Soldier having been out for more than a month now, Phil Lord and Chris Miller's The LEGO Movie remains the highest grossing film of 2014 domestically, having made more than $250 million Stateside (not to mention the extra $204 million it has made internationally). There is a lot of money to be made with good animated films that attract both young and adult audiences, so we'll just have to wait and see if The Flintstones can be that.
