Dax Shepard is taking the wheel of the Mystery Machine.
Shepard, who is coming off of working on a big-screen take on CHiPs for Warner Bros., is reteaming with the studio for its Scooby-Doo animated feature.
Shepard is in negotiations to co-direct the Warners Animation Group project, based on the classic Saturday morning cartoon about the hamburger-loving canine and his sleuthing squad of teens.
Warners, feeling high off of working with Shepard on CHiPs, engaged the versatile triple threat to collaborate with screenwriter Matt Lieberman on the project. That went so well that Shepard’s involvement began morphing into a larger creative role.
The goal now is to have Shepard work with Tony Cervone, an Emmy-nominated animation vet who directed several straight-to-own movies in the studio’s lucrative franchise. (Co-directing is very common in animated features due to their complex production process that takes years to complete.)
Charles Roven and Richard Suckle, who previously produced the studio’s live-action Scooby movies, 2002’s Scooby-Dooand 2004’s Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, are producing along with Allison Abbate. A September 21, 2018 release has been penciled in.
Shepard, repped by WME, wrote and directed the big-screen CHiPS, and also stars in the movie with Michael Pena. The movie is set for release in August 2017.
Warners exec Jesse Ehrman, who oversaw Shepard’s CHiPs, is overseeing Scooby-Doo.
