The 1983 TV show Manimal only lasted eight episodes, but it’s taken on mythic proportions due to it’s wonderfully daft title and premise of being about a guy helps solve crimes by turning into all sorts of different animals.
Will Ferrell and Adam McKay think it’s an idea ripe for an action comedy makeover, as they will be working with Jimmy Miller’s Mosaic through their Gary Sanchez Productions banner to produce a feature film version, according to Variety.
The original show starred British actor Simon MacCorkindale as Dr. Jonathan Chase, a rich man raised in Africa who was a ‘master of the secrets that divide man from animal’. The film version will be a CG animated/Live-action hybrid.
Anchorman director Adam McKay comments, “I think it’s right down our alley, it’s what we do. It’s tongue-in-cheek and has an action component, but overall it’s a comedy. Like The Catcher In The Rye or The Sound And The Fury, Manimal has always been one of those elusive projects every producer dreams of taking to the silver screen. I know the movie will be funny and entertaining, but will it be the first film to win a Pulitzer? We’ll just have to see.”
It’s not clear is Will Ferrell will star, but it seems likely.