We’ve brought it up a few times now, in an attempt to atone for ignoring the film on its original release, but we’ll mention it one more time — when we finally caught up with Sony’s “Cloudy With Chance of Meatballs,” it turned out to be one of the most delightful surprises of 2009, a genuinely charming animation which managed to be inventive, funny, exciting and moving in equal measure. It came from writer-director team Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who were behind the MTV animation “Clone High,” and it seemed to promise big things for the pair.
Indeed, the same studio quickly snapped them up to direct the action-comedy “21 Jump Street,” which will go into production next year, starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, while they were also attached to a live action/animated hybrid “Lego” movie not so long ago. Risky Business now bring news that the pair look likely to sign on to another long-gestating comedy project.
The blog reports that the duo are in negotiations to direct and produce the comedy “Bob The Musical” for Disney. The project, which has been in the works for over half a decade now, involves the titular man who, after being hit on the head, finds that he can “hear the inner songs of everyone’s heart,” turning the world around him into a full-on musical. Writers like Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel (“City Slickers“), John August (“Big Fish“) and Mike Binder (“Reign Over Me“) have all turned in drafts, while Mark Waters (“Mean Girls“) and, most recently Adam Shankman (“Hairspray“) were attached to direct.
Shankman bailed on the project in the summer in the hope of landing the director’s chair on “Oz The Great and Powerful,” eventually losing out to Sam Raimi, and the film’s been rudderless since, but if Lord and Miller sign on, it’s likely to give the project forward momentum — “21 Jump Street” will come first, but the pair will work with a new writer on the script in the meantime.
It’s a high concept, for sure, but it’s one that we certainly see the potential in, particularly with Lord and Miller on board, and songs written by Marc Shaiman who, while he was responsible for “Hairspray,” was also behind the music for “South Park: Bigger Longer And Uncut,” arguably the best original movie musical in the last couple of decades. With “21 Jump Street” shooting in the spring, this won’t move forward until early 2012 at the very earliest — but we’ll keep an eye on it in the meantime.