Although Warner Brothers managed to make $455 million on their two Scooby Doo feature films that mixed live action with comupter generated animation to bring the popular cartoon series to the big screen, their next Scooby Doo project will be entirely animated.
That’s according to Variety, who is reporting that the studio is in the midst of developing a new big screen adventure for the talking Great Dane and his four teenage mystery-solving companions. Matt Lieberman, whose few credits include the in development remake of Short Circuit and an untitled project for Paramount Animation, has been hired to write the screenplay. The studio is keeping mum about the film’s storyline but I bet it will involve a mystery being solved by a certain group of meddling kids.
I have to admit that I am not much of a Scooby Doo fan. As I kid I couldn’t get into the show for whatever, even when adults tried to tell me that I liked it. Last year, though, I checked out the Cartoon Network Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated series on the advice of a friend and loved it. But then again, the series had a continuing, X-Files-ish storyline and featured references to things like the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and a hilarious Hellraiser joke in one episode. Toss in some strong characterization for the Scooby and the gang and a guest appearance from Harlan Ellison and you have a series that was definitely not aimed for children so much as their parents!
