With the Penguins being probably the best-loved part fo the entire Madagascar franchise, Dreamworks Animation has been busy looking at ways they can exploit that, and one way has been to develop an entire movie based on the little semi-aquatic birds.
Now things are moving forward as THR says Bee Movie co-director Simon J. Smith has been hired to helm the Untitled Madagascar Penguins Project, which will likely hit theaters in 2014. Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simons, writers of MegaMind, have been brought onto write the screenplay for this spin-off.
The story will focus primarily on Skipper, Kowalski, Private and Rico, the four penguins who’ve garnered quite a following from Madagascar and its sequel.
Madagascar 3 will precede the Untitled Madagascar Penguins Project into cinemas, as it arrives on May 18th of 2012. The penguins are more than likely to make an appearance in the film, getting them ready to have their own franchise (which they sort of already have, due to several Penguin shorts Dreamworks have made).