20th Century Fox is prepping a big-screen version of the popular comic strip Mutts.
The studio’s animation division has hired Mutts creator Patrick McDonnell and his brother Robert McDonnell to write the script for a feature-length animated film. Patrick McDonnell will executive produce.
Mutts is a daily comic strip centering on the antics of a dog named Earl and a cat named Mooch who interact with each other and the animals in their neighborhood, as well as their human owners. McDonnell created the humor strip, syndicated by King Features Syndicate, in 1994. Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz said before his death that he was a big fan of the strip.
Fox has had success in the comics-to-movie genre before. The studio made two films based on the popular Garfield comic strip that grossed nearly $350 million combined worldwide. The Mutts project was brought in by Fox Animation executive Ralph Millero.
Patrick McDonnell is repped by the Rabineau Wachter Sanford Gillett literary agency and attorneys Keith Fleer and Stu Reese.
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