Fox 2000 Bringing 'Mr. Ed' to the Big Screen

11:12 AM PDT 10/4/2011 by Pamela McClintock

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Courtesy Everett Collection

David Friendly and Jim Mahoney are producing the film adaptation of the 1960s talking horse television show.

Elizabeth Gabler’s Fox 2000 has picked up the film rights to the classic talking horse Mr. Ed for David Friendly's Friendly Films and Jim Mahoney to produce.

No writer or director is yet attached to the live-action family film, which Fox 2000's Carla Hackan will shepherd.

It won’t be the first horse film for Gabler, an equestrian enthusiast. Fox 2000 also produced the 2006 Flicka

Mr. Ed, a television sitcom from Filmways, aired on CBS from Oct. 1, 1961 to Feb. 6, 1966. As in the original show, Fox 2000 will use a real horse. The studio will use CGI to animate the horse's mouth.

Friendly, who has produced a number of movies for Fox, including Little Miss Sunshine for Fox Searchlight, brought the project to Fox 2000. Friendly and Mahoney, a longtime manager and television producer, have spent several years securing the rights to Mr. Ed from two different estates.

Fox 2000’s upcoming slate includes The Big Year, starring Jack Black, Steve Martin and Owen Wilson. The film, based on the book The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession, opens in theaters Oct. 14.