Tim Hill has come to represent a name studios can trust when it comes to family entertainment. His directorial credits include Muppets from Space, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, the first Alvin and the Chipmunks and Hop. So when the writer-director – whose credits also include the massively successful SpongeBob SquarePants franchise – announces plans for a family comedy titled Playdate, you can understand why studios would be willing to take a chance on the project.
Hill will write and direct this new effort for 20th Century Fox, according to Deadline. Plot details are being held close to the vest, though it is being revealed that Hill will co-write his treatment with Dave Johnson. The title suggests something that happens during a playdate, though that easily could be a bait-and-switch for any type of story, really. It’s too soon to guess.
There’s very little guesswork when it comes to Hill, though. He has stayed busy in the family-comedy genre, and we expect Playdate to follow along the same lines. Hill’s semi-animated Easter comedy Hop wasn’t a good film (parents who have to sit through a ton of family comedies likely will back me up), but it was a profitable movie for Universal, earning $183 million at the global box office on a reported $63M budget. His films make money. Fox is playing it safe.
I’m not sure what this does for Hill’s planned reboot of Short Circuit, however. Will he make Playdate instead of Circuit? Or tackle the family film after he has brought Johnny 5 back to life? Once we hear, we’ll let you know.
