'Animorphs' movie in development

[mclay18]

I think Sony is sitting on the website domain rights (which expire next year), so I would think they'd have first crack at it.

Maybe... just maybe, we'll get something concrete if Goosebumps is a hit next month.

 

[Drizzle]

Maybe... just maybe, we'll get something concrete if Goosebumps is a hit next month.

Even then, Goosebumps was a much more popular series than Animorphs in the 90s. Once the Harry Potter books took off, Animorphs never stood a chance.

 

[smallville fan]

Looks like Media sources are still adamant to believe that the movie's still happening. There's a lot of confusion here.

Honestly, Scholastic and Applegate should just go to Universal and make this happen.

 

[Breogan]

Fan CAST: (Not mine)
Jake- Lucas Till
Rachel- Jennifer Lawrence
Cassie- Adelayo Adedayo
Tobias- Freddie Highmore
Marco- Carlos Valdes

They mostly seem to old.

They at least did some fun poster art - http://geektruth64.deviantart.com/gallery/56160482/Animorphs-Movie

 

[Schlosser85]

Could have potential if done right....or could easily be just yet another generic YA.

 

[Alien Anal]

Yeh this could totally be bad ass especially with todays CGI allowing for very real looking animals.

Invasion of the body snatchers/The Faculty with super powered teens fighting back.

 

[smallville fan]

Aww, I thought it was suddenly real again. If there's going to be more discussion on this can an admin re-title the thread so others won't be mislead?

Thanks.

P.S. While I think a movie would be great, there's also the strong possibility that it would go the same route as The Shannara Chronicles, Shadowhunters, The 100 etc where they'll do another show.

 

[Majik1387]

Not a fan of the fan cast at all.

 

[smallville fan]

Not a fan of the fan cast at all.

I agree. They're supposed to be really young teenagers like 15/16 at most.

 

[Drizzle]

Jennifer Lawrence wouldn't be caught dead in something like this.

 

[Schlosser85]

Jennifer Lawrence wouldn't be caught dead in something like this.

If properly handled, it would be in the same genre as The Hunger Games.

 

[Alien Anal]

Yeh its quite similar to Power Rangers. An alien invasion, teens getting super powers from another alien that allows them to fight back. It totally has potential to be something cool.

It doesn't even need to be some grand scale film, like i said earlier it could be something low key like Body Snatchers and the teens have to evade getting caught and revealing some conspiracy while being bad ass and turning into animals

 

[redhawk23]

If properly handled, it would be in the same genre as The Hunger Games.

Which she took on at a markedly different stage of her career.

 

[Drizzle]

If properly handled, it would be in the same genre as The Hunger Games.

Which she took on at a markedly different stage of her career.

Precisely. Not to mention she looked bored as hell in the last couple of "Hunger Games" movies as well as "Days of Future Past" and you can even tell from the trailer that she looks bored in "X-Men: Apocalypse". She wouldn't take on another franchise anytime soon.

 

[redhawk23]

Also she is about 12 years too old for any of the roles although that'd be a nice change from her usual 15 years too young.

 

[Breogan]

Not a fan of the fan cast at all.

I agree. They're supposed to be really young teenagers like 15/16 at most.

Me neither, was hoping it would inspire you all to do and suggest your own, not just whine.

If properly handled, it would be in the same genre as The Hunger Games.

It doesn't even need to be some grand scale film, like i said earlier it could be something low key like Body Snatchers and the teens have to evade getting caught and revealing some conspiracy while being bad ass and turning into animals

Maybe a similar approach to Netfix's Stranger Things.

 

[Loden Greatstorm]

This has potential if done right.

Not sure why the epic bump was needed since we haven't had news on 2 years.

Yeah I doubt this is happening.

 

[Aximili86]

It'd never happen in any way faithful to the series, anyway. They'd age up the kids to like 17 automatically, they'd basically have to to get past the ratings board, and it'd be pretty neutered thematically.

I'd rather they just not do it. It was what, 53 books from memory? Yeah, about a third of those were "filler" that you could skip over, but you've still got what, 30-something stories that advance the plot in pretty significant ways, that you wouldn't want omitted. You start mixing & matching, combining arcs for time reasons, and it's going to suck.

Thing is, this wasn't Harry Potter in terms of being tailor made for movie adaptations. It wasn't Goosebumps in that sweet spot of tone of "scary by kid's standards, but still suitable for kids".

This was a series with a 16 year old kid intentionally mass-murdering unarmed prisoners, of a kid having to send his cousin to kill his brother, of an orphan kid trapped in a hawk's body and struggling with the mental stuff of having to rip mice's guts out just to survive. A series with bloody Vietnam style guerrila war waged by a bunch of 13 year olds, slaves, major PTSD, pretty graphic bloody descriptions of hand-to-hand combat - with tigers & bears against sentient reptiles with razor blade ivory things coming out of their arms & legs. The authors have said over the years they're pretty shocked they got away with it, and that's just with the written word - translate that to a visual medium and everyone's going to freak.

It's like...Super 8, if it were as violent as the Cameron Terminator films, a pretty specific era/cultural setting, and this weird tonal balance where kids using alien tech to turn into various animals to wage war against brain-enslaving slug aliens doesn't come off as ridiculous.

And yeah, it's dozens of books long as opposed to the usual 5, 6, 7 tops that these Y.A. things are. With a way more controversial tone than any of these other Y.A. series. Also not sure the whole "paranoia" & insidious shadowy threat tone plays so well now, given everyone basically lives all that day to day with terrorism - the books are very, very Bill Clinton era "we're safe at home, at least" America, you'd probably want to set it late 90s too. No cell phones for the kids, internet's still pretty basic, America's at peace and stuff.

We'd get it done really sanitized & safe, if it happens. Best to not go there. The author's other (pretty great) work, Everworld and Gone, is even more intense. Basically - Hunger Games & Maze Runner, Animorphs wasn't. There's a line, when it comes to producers, censors, and parents. Even ignoring the violence and big gritty war-and-repercussions themes, a lot of the dialogue from Marco & Rachel alone would pretty much be considered "problematic microaggressions" or whatever now, it wouldn't fly.

They'd basically have to Enders' Game this thing pretty extremely, for a movie. And that wasn't even a terrible film, but it was pretty clearly sanitized & kids-gloved.


EDIT:

Thread made me curious to google image Animorphs out of pure nostalgia - remember really hating a lot of the cover art, but the hand-drawn stuff from the Chronicles books is pretty badass, and closer to the text descriptions. Love that one.

This fan art is pretty sweet too.

 

[Lencho01]

Man, I was hoping for an update.

 

[Drizzle]

If the Power Rangers movie underperformed the way it did, I can't see this becoming a thing. Plus, I was a kid in the '90s so I remember Animorphs very well. I even read the first couple of books in the series. The concept was cool, but the following for it wasn't THAT big. It was nowhere near the popularity level of Goosebumps or even The Babysitters Club. A film version of this would most likely tank.

 

[Aximili86]

Actually, pre-Harry Potter Animorphs was the big-dog in YA sales along with Goosebumps, for a period. Thing is, that doesn't really translate to there being much of an audience for it movie-wise. Kids now obviously aren't going to know about it and won't give a ****, most of the adults who read it as kids it's been so long they've forgotten mostly about it or don't care.

They tried to re-launch/re-publish the books a couple of years ago (same text but with updated cultural references, and new book covers) and it totally bombed, they stopped the run about 5 books into the 50+ book series.

Keep in mind the authors say they know jack about the movie deal other than "some producers were interested at one time but it didn't really go anywhere", I'd say it fizzled out as a proposition pretty quickly. Which makes sense, and frankly is probably for the best. You'd have to water down the content bigtime to get a PG-13 rating, the long-form storytelling doesn't lend itself to a movie series, and there's just jack-all in terms of an audience for it by now anyway.

 

[Silvermoth]

Man, I was hoping for an update.

Yeah me too but never mind it’s alwahs fun to chat about the animorphs.

I wonder what they will change if they adapted it? I guarantee at least one would be lgbtiq which would be interesting. Gosh I would love to see ax use his tail in live action

 

[smallville fan]

This has potential if done right.

Not sure why the epic bump was needed since we haven't had news on 2 years.

Yeah I doubt this is happening.

Man, I was hoping for an update.

Yeah me too but never mind it’s always fun to chat about the animorphs.

When I saw this thread was bumped, I thought you lot were talking about this? Well anyway allow me to be the bearer of good news. It seems like Michael Grant is shopping Animorphs around to Universal.

This Reddit user asked Michael about Animorphs on screen. Didn't specify whether it was big screen or small screen.

If the Power Rangers movie underperformed the way it did, I can't see this becoming a thing. Plus, I was a kid in the '90s so I remember Animorphs very well. I even read the first couple of books in the series. The concept was cool, but the following for it wasn't THAT big. It was nowhere near the popularity level of Goosebumps or even The Babysitters Club. A film version of this would most likely tank.

Depends. But yeah, YA sci-fi movies don't do well these days. I'd love it to be on Netflix where they can go all out with the dark stuff from the books.

Actually, pre-Harry Potter Animorphs was the big-dog in YA sales along with Goosebumps, for a period. Thing is, that doesn't really translate to there being much of an audience for it movie-wise. Kids now obviously aren't going to know about it and won't give a ****, most of the adults who read it as kids it's been so long they've forgotten mostly about it or don't care.

Keep in mind the authors say they know jack about the movie deal other than "some producers were interested at one time but it didn't really go anywhere", I'd say it fizzled out as a proposition pretty quickly. Which makes sense, and frankly is probably for the best. You'd have to water down the content bigtime to get a PG-13 rating, the long-form storytelling doesn't lend itself to a movie series, and there's just jack-all in terms of an audience for it by now anyway.

Well, Stranger Things was huge. A lot of Animorphs fans found similarities in terms of themes, characters, format and tone and think the same things would work. Even both Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant both agreed.
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I wonder what they will change if they adapted it? I guarantee at least one would be lgbtiq which would be interesting. Gosh I would love to see ax use his tail in live action

Marco would be Bisexual most likely. I along with this Animorphs Facebook group I'm in follow both KA Applegate and Michael Grant on social media where they're both pretty chatty with fans. She mused that if she had another crack at Marco, he would be Bisexual.

Knowing a potential showrunner, they'll make it happen with no hesitation. Maybe even do an episode where he finds out a love interest is a controller.

 

[Aximili86]

Regarding that "meeting with producers" thing, Applegate & Grant have been saying that once every two or three years for like a decade. Wouldn't take it too seriously, sounds like it did get a little traction a few years back though.

As for the Stranger Things thing, ehh. That's got more in common with E.T. and IT and Goonies anyway. Animorphs shares some of that, absolutely, but it's also a hell of a lot larger in scope. TV suits it better from a narrative structure perspective, but you're not going to be able to pull off the larger setpieces & stuff on TV, even HBO or Netflix. It just sits in this really weird tonal & size space, like "aimed at a middle-schooler/early-highschooler audience, but way too violent and thematically intense for that (at least in terms of a visual medium)" and "50+ little episodic narratives that you don't want to condense into a few movies, but also too 'big' in certain places for TV".

Maybe an animated series might be the way to go? Hard PG-13, cover it in a couple of seasons, given it's animated you could convey the bigger stuff more cheaply? *Shrugs*

 

[Silvermoth]

Marco would be Bisexual most likely. I along with this Animorphs Facebook group I'm in follow both KA Applegate and Michael Grant on social media where they're both pretty chatty with fans. She mused that if she had another crack at Marco, he would be Bisexual.

Knowing a potential showrunner, they'll make it happen with no hesitation. Maybe even do an episode where he finds out a love interest is a controller.

Aw I wish I had known that as a teen as teen me would definitely have loved to have a crack at bisexual Marco if you know what I mean