[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Twentieth Century
Fox will formally announce today that its long-awaited "The Simpsons" feature will open worldwide in theaters on July 27th, 2007. Fox introduced a 20-second teaser trailer Friday on prints of "
Ice Age: The Meltdown", and screened it during last night's broadcast of the show.
The production staff are in the storyboarding stage following two years of script drafts and three covert cast readings. Though news of the
movie became known when a feature option was made part of contract renewals for show regulars in 2001, the script and release strategy were successfully cloaked in secrecy.
David Silverman, the "Simpsons" supervising animation
director who co-helmed 2001's "Monsters, Inc.," is set as director. Deals are done with show regulars Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Pamela Hayden and Tress MacNeille.
"We've also set Albert Brooks,
Minnie Driver and the real
Erin Brockovich, so you should be able to deduce the plot just from that information," said series vet Al Jean to
Variety. The original intention was to delay the film until the show was done but last month, Fox committed to two more seasons of the show.
"We tried to save this until the end of the series, but that intention was undone by good ratings. The movie has been so daunting, and the contract between us has always been to wait until we all felt the script was right...we feel we now have a story and script worthy of a movie. And there was so much secrecy that it's actually a relief to be able to speak about it now" says show creator Matt Groening.
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news06/060403f.php
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