The Berenstain Bears to get the feature treatment
As a child, I was pretty fiercely dedicated to book series that began with “B” – The Boxcar Children, The Babysitters’ Club, The Berenstain Bears. Those Bears were charming in an innocuous way, and the books were complete, cute stories about a lovely family with easy, positive messages for its readership. So, of course, the Bears are hitting the big screen. Who ever said people don’t read anymore? Wait…
Director Shawn Levy (who you probably know as the man behind the NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM films and the upcoming DATE NIGHT), is attached to produce a feature film of The Berenstain Bears books, set to be a comedic “mix of live-action and computer animation.” Shades of that MARMADUKE film already! Levy promises that this take on the Bears will “fit firmly within the wheelhouse of family-genre comedy I do…It’s warm-hearted comedy about family, and a different kind of family.” Of course it’s different, they’re bears. Levy has his own spin on the bear conundrum, however, and says he’d “like the film to be un-ironic about its family connections but have a wry comedic sensibility that isn’t oblivious to the fact that they’re bears…The comedy comes from this bear family coexisting in a more recognizably real world.” Apparently, Levy is aiming for an ELF-type comedy, featuring sweet characters who “[clash] with [their] cynical surroundings.” Smiling is my favorite!
Levy attributes his interest in the project to the long-standing popularity of the books, as the Berenstain clan has been around since first appearing in Jan and Stan Berenstain’s The Big Honey Hunt in 1962. “To stand that kind of test of time is pretty formidable,” says Levy. “People read them as kids and can now read them to their kids. Any piece of culture that proves that enduring has something special in its DNA.”
The Bears have already been adapted to the screen before, but for television. The Bears had a series of television specials in the 70s and 80s, and two animated series (one in 1985, and one that has run since 2003).
Walden Media, the company that owns the film rights, is aiming for a release date in late 2011. There is no word yet on writers or a director for the project, but I would not be surprised if Levy took on helming duties as well.
Source USA Today, via The Playlist
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