Gnomeo & Juliet's Kelly Asbury Set To Write Pooch Cafe
With writing credits on Beauty and the Beast and Chicken Run, and even more credits as a storyboard artist, not to mention serving as director on Shrek 2 and most recently, Gnomeo & Juliet, it’s safe to say Kelly Asbury knows his way around an animated film. That should make him a good fit to write the adaptation of Pooch Cafe.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Kelly has been tapped by Sony Pictures Animation to adapt the Paul Gilligan comic strip Pooch Cafe for a big screen release. The story centers on a dog named Poncho, described as a “cheese-loving, squirrel-fearing, toilet-drinking mutt who joins his canine friends at the Pooch Café, a neighborhood hangout where dogs can be dogs – comparing notes on such weighty issues as avoiding baths, zebra-flavored kibble, and the construction of a giant catapult with which to hurl all the Earth?s cats into the Sun.”
So, this is clearly a pro-dogs movie, for those of you who consider cats to be the superior series. I’d count myself among that lot, but as someone who loves cheese and once feared squirrels as a child, it might not be all that difficult to relate to Poncho.?
Sony Pictures Animation doesn’t have a lot under its belt, but it does have a lot in the works, including Pooch Cafe. The off-shoot of Sony Pictures Entertainment was behind Open Season, Surf’s Up, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and The Smurfs. Cloudy was a loose adaptation of a book, and The Smurfs was a reboot/adaptation of sorts, so it’ll be interesting to see what the company does with Pooch Cafe. In the meantime, with Kelly set to write, it sounds like they have someone capable on board to get the story fit for a movie.
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Kelly joined CinemaBlend as a freelance TV news writer in 2006 and went on to serve as the site’s TV Editor before moving over to other roles on the site. At present, she’s an Assistant Managing Editor who spends much of her time brainstorming and editing feature content on the site. She an expert in all things Harry Potter, books from a variety of genres (sci-fi, mystery, horror, YA, drama, romance -- anything with a great story and interesting characters.), watching Big Brother, frequently rewatching The Office, listening to Taylor Swift, and playing The Sims.