With kids’ movies being amongst the most profitable around, Hollywood is always looking for pre-existing franchises it can adapt for a big-budget, big screen version. The latest to join the throng of children’s films in pre-production is The Berenstain Bears, with Night At The Museum director, Shawn levy, attached to produce.
In case you’ve never come across them, the books are about a family of bears (Papa, Mama and three kids), who act pretty much like human beings and deal with normal family problems, from starting school to having a new brother or sister. The books, created by Jan and Stan Berenstain, have been going since 1962, and the bears have also had several outings as an animated TV series and as computer games for younger children.
Although perhaps not as well known today, the Berenstain Bears had a big influence on the generation that grew up in the 70s and early 80s, becoming beloved because if its ability to talk to kids on their level and deal with the problem they actually faced in daily life. Walden Media, the company behind the Narnia adaptations, is hoping to bring that into its planned live-action and CG mix big-screen Berenstain movie. Of course it’s also the 70s and 80s generation who now have kids of their own to take to the film.
At the moment the film is at a pretty early stage with no writers hired, although USA Today reports that Shawn Levy wants the film to be an original story incorporating details from some of the more popular Berenstain book. “I’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,” Levy says. “The comedy comes from this bear family coexisting in a more recognizably real world.”
Levy and Walden hoping to get the film into cinemas in late 2011.