It’s been announced that Universal and Illumination Entertainment have picked up the rights to the popular kids’ book series, Where’s Wally? (or at least, Where’s Waldo, as it’s known in the US), for a live action adaptation. Quite how you turn Wally into a movie is another question entirely, as I can’t imagine 90 minutes of searching for someone in a crowd would be much fun.
Despite this apparent problem, there was actually a bit of a bidding war for the rights, with Warner Bros. and others in the race, trying to get the option to make an adaptation. However it was Universal and Illumination that won out for a figure that’s reported to be in the high six, low seven figure range.
Since the book started out in the UK in 1987, they’ve sold more than 50 million copies worldwide, so there’s certainly a strong brand there, but ultimately how is the film going to anything other than a standard kids’ flick, probably involving someone being lost most of the time?