According to Variety, Warner Bros. is poised to throw an old dog a bone by reanimating Scooby-Doo and the gang for the big screen. Working in collaboration with Atlas Entertainment and series’ producers Charles Roven and Richard Suckle, the studio’s planned project will mark the first cinematic venture for the Mystery Machine and its ghost-hunting crew since Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed in 2004.
And now, almost a decade later, Warner Bros. has displayed their confidence in the prolific intellectual property. After all, Scooby and the gang have maintained a steady stream of new content over on Cartoon Network; with more than twenty direct-to-video depictions since 1998, too. In terms of this new animated feature, though, the studio has kept plot details in the spooky dark other than announcing that Short Circuit scribe Matt Lieberman has been hired to pen the script.
The filmic adventures of the beloved Great Dane thus far, which includes Scooby-Doo in 2002 and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed two years later, performed rather well financially with their mix of live-action and CGI, and grossed $275 million and $180 million, respectively. The aforementioned partnership of Roven and Suckle helped produce this cinematic brace, and will oversee the latest silver screen rendition of Scooby.
While you may not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, it’s abundantly clear that there’s life in Hanna-Barbera’s original creation yet. At this time, there is no word of a potential release date for Warner Bros. big screen adaption of Scooby-Doo. Given the nature of animation, though, it’s entirely possible that the film will grace theatres within a year or two should it secure a leading voice cast soon.
What do you think, though? Do you anticipate a faithful rendition of Scooby’s spooky adventures? Either way, spare a thought for the poor criminals; after all, they would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for those meddling kids.