While 2020 has been a shitshow for most of the film industry thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been two surprise success stories— “Bad Boys for Life” and “Sonic the Hedgehog.” One of those films is a sequel two decades in the making that was far from a guaranteed hit and is still the #1 movie of the year. The other is a video game adaptation that had the worst marketing campaign of 2019 and somehow became a hit with fans and critics alike. And now, creative minds from both features are combining forces to tackle ‘The Pink Panther.’
READ MORE: Paramount Bringing Back ‘Sonic’ Writers & Director For A Sequel
According to THR, Jeff Fowler, the director of the aforementioned “Sonic the Hedgehog,” is set to helm a new ‘Pink Panther’ film for MGM. And joining him is Chris Bremner, a co-writer on “Bad Boys for Life,” who will pen the new script for the reboot. And when we say “reboot,” what we really mean is a complete overhaul.
The report claims that a specific plot is yet to be revealed but this ‘Pink Panther’ will be the first feature to combine the Inspector Clouseau character with the animated title character that became so popular in the opening credits of the feature film that he spawned his own cartoon and media empire. The new film will still feature Clouseau as an inspector, but when a traumatic event happens, he begins to see the pink cartoon character as his imaginary friend. We assume, from there, hijinks ensue.
And if we’re talking films that combine cartoonish anthropomorphic animals and human counterparts, Fowler is clearly your guy. He was able to somehow salvage what was a really terrible marketing campaign that was destroyed by fans when ‘Sonic’ was first revealed, delaying the feature to rework the CGI and return with a hit feature. And if he can make a blue, speedy hedgehog work, why not a pink feline?
A production timeline has yet to be revealed, but this is a project that MGM will most certainly want to spawn a franchise, so it wouldn’t be shocking to see the momentum continue to build for this new “Pink Panther.”