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EXCLUSIVE: 20th Century Fox has teamed with Walden Media to buy rights to Bil Keane’s venerable syndicated comic strip The Family Circus, and they’ve hired Bob Hilgenberg & Rob Muir to script a live action feature. John Baldecchi and Stacy Maes are producing. Bil Keane started the strip in 1960 and continues to generate the single-panel script with his son Jeff. It is the most widely syndicated strip in the world, according to King Features. A number of studios competed for the rights for what is envisioned as a multiple quadrant family franchise. 
Though several members of the Keane clan have become film animators, Bil Keane resisted making a film deal all these years. Producer Baldecchi spent two years trying to track them down. He got Keane’s number, but never had his messages returned. One day, Baldecchi called and Keane picked up the phone. He made enough of an impression that Keane introduced the producer to his son Jeff. Soon they had an agreement to move forward and then studios got involved. I’m told the deal was six figures against seven-figures and went to Fox and Walden, which are partnered in the upcoming The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Among other projects, the writers worked with Baldecchi on their comedy script Scared Guys, about a couple of agoraphobic roommates who have to venture out of their building and across the street to prevent a murder.
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one of the worst comic strip out there with one of the worst studios out there (sans Searchlight which is actually good). Good luck with this one, Fox.
I always enjoyed reading this comic strip as a kid and continue to enjoy it. The appeal is the simple humor you get from your children and the things they say. They take things so literally!
Back in my day, being a viral marketeer meant conviction! Gumption! You kids these days, you don’t even try.
can’t tell if this is ironic…ow, my head
“One of the worst comic strip out there” – nice grammar.
““One of the worst comic strip out there” – nice grammar.”
A sentence fragment that isn’t even properly capitalized isn’t exactly the best display of your own grammatical skills.
No, she really wasn’t. She cussed a lot and was always yelling at us to get off her lawn.
“One of the worst comic strips out there”–maybe the grammar is not proper but just change the words “comic strips” to “movies” and the blurbs for this movies will write themselves!
What a horrible, horrible idea.
Can somebody define each of the four quadrants for those of us in “flyover” country who lack the artistic sensibilities necessary to make a film based on Family Circle….
The “four quadrants” refers to four broad demographic segments that movies can be aimed at: females over age 25, males over age 25, females under age 25, and males under age 25.
Just the sort of wholesome family entertainment a Fox fan like me craves. Yes, there’s nothing I enjoy more than sipping Ovaltine by the fire and reading the Saturday Evening Post while the kids watch Family Circus. Then after the little ones are tucked away in bed, I settle back into my easy chair for a family values-packed episode of Nip/Tuck.
like all Walden projects since Cary was forced out, this too will go nowhere
Hell yeah! This means “The Lockhorns” can’t be far behind!
Team Loretta!
Can’t wait for the Cathy movie!! ;p
I’m in line already for “Ziggy” !
Will Fox force theatres to put in round screens in order to show it ?
Who asked for this? Ida Know. Who wants to see it? Not me.
Ha. Best post ever.
Close the comments. renton wins the internet.
Well if Not Me goes to see it, then the movie will make money.
I assumed the movie wouldn’t make any money and it would be funnier to imagine the Fox Searchlight executives office after weekend box office results are in.
Who Green lit this fiasco?
Not Me!
Cut to Not Me’s executive office, where he’s just jumped out the window.
Are there any strips where Jeffrey’s wearing pants?
No. No, there are not.
So this will be a R or NC17 then?
Thats what happens when a kid “grows up” on the comic pages just across from “Donald Duck”!
This strip is never funny… not even once.
I agree with you there. why is it that THIS is getting a movie idea, but PEARLS BEFORE SWINE, one of the GREATEST STRIPS OF TODAY, gets diddly squat? Honestly. stupid movie companies.
Have any of you haters stopped for a moment to figure out that this is not going to be a hip noir-ish film for the sophisticated readers of DH, but a children’s movie, for goodness sake? You should all go to the doctor and have your bile drained. Good Lord!
Oh please. Some of the finest entertainment to come out of Hollywood is family and child targeted. Just being “A children’s movie” isn’t what people hate about it – the fact that the comic is lazy, unfunny, repetitive and so incredibly bland is what bugs most of us. I’m sure “Pass the pasgetti” is funny to someone somewhere, but don’t get on your high horse just because the rest of us think it’s a horrible comic.
I respect the hell out of good comic strips. FC is tripe. Lazy tripe.
“lazy tripe” ????
someone didnt have his/her fiber today did they?
its only a comic strip for crying out loud not shakespeare…. sheesh….
you would think this was satan’s last will & testament possibly going to the big screen by the way the negative commenting folks have jumped on this.
the strip’s been around since 1960….SOMEBODY likes it.
would i go c it? probably NOT. But that would be my same response to the simpsons, garfield and micky mouse.
relax folks. its ONLY a comic strip.
So because there newspaper editors are so lazy that they don’t replace outdated comics someone thinks a film needs to be made? Seriously. Where’s the Dondi movie. That strip played for years too.
What I think is hilarious is that in an era where modern technology is fast encroaching on the film business, Walden and Fox turn to another industry that is already on death’s doorstep for inspiration. That’s really using the noggin.
I have to agree.
They’re not rushing out to make Brenda Starr and Rex Morgan the movie, are they?
bill:
“Where’s the Dondi movie. That strip played for years too.”
It came out in 1961:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054816/
Seriously, though, people have a right to bitch about what a groaner of an idea a Family Circus movie is. Saying things like “it’s a kid’s movie” (therefore, what, quality is irrelevant?) or “it’s just from a comic strip” are total non-points.
ok, so if you picked the strip to be a movie its ok then? doesnt it make sense that NO MATTER what strip is used hollywood is taking another “unoriginal” idea to make a flick?
couldnt the same be said about taking any book property and making it a film?
i am sorry i just dont understand the hate towards the strip or movie choice.
you dont like the strip and hence the movie then dont go see it. its being made for somebody. marmuduke looked like a horrible movie yet i know of a friend took his kid for her birthday to see it. i was shocked. i told him it looks like it sucks. but his wife and kid thought otherwise. and they dont even have a dog!!!
its the movie companies money to buy whatever they like and bring it to the screen, no matter what my opinion is.
you know the same folks seem to be mad that LET ME IN is a remake.
LET ME IN remake is a excellent picture yet complaints are flying in left & right. you would think heresy is being committed. LET ME IN much BETTER then any Family Circus comic strip or film will ever bebut those who doo not like just cant stand it.
cant please anyone these days. sad.
Comics are an art form that I appreciate. Just like any other art form there is great, good, okay, bad and awful. If you don’t care about the art form that’s your prerogative, but some of us actually have strong opinions about these things. FC is crap. Period.
“I don’t care so no one else should!” is the crux of your argument. Congratulations on that. I don’t ask you to care about my opinion, but don’t tell me I need to “relax” or “have fiber” (gad, you’re good!) for having one.
Go chase yourself.
- Same anonymous as above.
well again, your wrong. the strip is NOT my “per-o-gative”. i dont read it and i wouldnt go see a movie about it. where did i say otherwise? but someone does read it.
sure everyone is entitled to their opinion. hence my criticism of your uptight opinion over a KIDS strip & movie. you dont even name an alternative for the company to pick. you just slam them.
to rpeat: its been around for 60 yrs..someone reads it and like it.
but wait….i know you want the little ones to be able to understand steinbeck and voltaire by the age of 7 that way they will enjoy stephen king and bergmen by the time they reach puberty. “sigh”
those who hate this strip seem to be so much more “sophisticated” then the rest of us, i am even surprised they troubled their bored intellects to comment on this thread.
go figure.
like i said, fiber would does wonders for the mental rubber band that siphons of common sense these days from people who are too sophisticated for their own good.
I like this strip!!! Its my absolute favourite actually!! Thank you for a positive comment!!: )
Oh please. Once a comic gets syndication, it goes on for pretty much forever — regardless of quality, demand, or the creator’s death.
The fact that Family Circus continues to shamble on is no indication of anything besides the “comic’s” complete disconnection from reality.
Obviously, you have not seen what passes as children’s entertainment these days. This will not resemble the strip in the least when it finally makes it to the screen. It will be a montage of poop and fart jokes, and a running gag will definitely be Jeffy running around pantsless – most likely in the middle of a church service, then a wedding, then a funeral (which will make us all realize that kids mean that “life goes on,” even after grief blah blah blah), and then as the closing credits begin. It will resemble the original source material as much as Steve Martin’s “Cheaper by the Dozen” movies resemble the Gilbreth novels.
Nostalgia critic would stay that that’s no excuse, and it isn’t. this strip is crap, and I don’t want to feed children crap.
You should have published this Monday so it wouldn’t have ruined my weekend
Isn’t it enough that Bill Keane’s kid almost single handedly brought down Disney’s hand drawn animation department?
Even though I don’t have any idea how this movie will develop, I can already see this movie being widely shown on Cable TV–on the Hallmark Channel, that is. And I’m being very nice in the last comment.
Let’s remember the Dysfunctional Family Circus instead.
If a movie has to get made, how about one based on the Andy Capp comic strip? That’s a comic strip about someone with issues!!!!!!
This is a joke,right?
It was never as good after the mother got her hair cut.
Oy. A crapola of a comic gets made into celluloid crap.
What is Hollywood coming to?
I once heard Family Circus described thusly by a comedian, and I can’t argue:
** And then there’s the Family fucking Circus, bottom right hand corner, just waiting to suck **
Aaron McGruder’s “Boondocks” would be a better live action conversion from the comic strip/cable cartoon — and MUCH, MUCH more topical and sarcastic and witty. I could even see that kid from “Community” — Mr. Donald Glover? — playing the lede role.
But Hollywood doesn’t have the balls to go THERE. If I were an exec for a day, I’d do “Boondocks” instead of some dried up and crusty and dusty comic strip with little, if any, relevance to anyone under 40 today. Cest la vie.
Ian Edwards would be better than Donald Glover, he’s a stronger comedian plus he’s a writer on Boondocks.
As someone over 40, I can promise you it has no relevance to me. The only worthwhile thing that could possibly come of this would be if someone did a Dysfunctional Family Circus Movie in response.
That the movie GO near the end when Katie Holmes and Timothy Olyphant are talking at the coffee house
Flyover states; faith based effort. Roll out Midwest/South and expand to A/B county. It could work.
THat’s probably the decision that was made here. Clueless dismissive execs thinking “flyover” country is made up of people who think The Family Circus is funny. They don’t. This will be another Walden effort that crashes and burns. Friggin’ idiots.
If I believed in Armageddon, I feel like the release and success of this film would be one of its signs.
Awful, awful, awful.
Every strip is a verbal and visual lobotomy that diminishes hope, intelligence, and one’s capacity to love.
not neccessarily. I rather think Pearls before swine is good, and there are others that are funny and cheery, too. we just have this whole satirical society now, so a lot of the humor is satirical or skeptical. but PBS actually makes fun of society, giving it a higher purpose: dishing out a slice or three of humble pie. but yeah, a lot of comic strips are hardly funny.
Hey. Wait a minute. There are many of us who are over 70 years old who might like it. and many of us who are under ten years old. How old IS this script? fifty years old? ha. You are right and they are right. This strip is never funny but it was funny. Once upon a time. I love this age-segregation part of being alive. It is such a study.
when was it funny? where? got a link?
You mean there was a competition for this turd?
I don’t know if the single panel format will work for a feature length film. There’s not a whole lot they can do to make a plot for it. I guess Hollywood hasn’t learned their lesson with Marmaduke.
For your consideration in 2012: Craptastic: Nancy vs. Sluggo
At least that would have Aunt Fritzi for eye candy.
Dear christ, why? Its the same 10 strips repeated ad infinitum.
It wasn’t funny 40 years ago when it was somewhat relevant, its like a sad joke now.
Bleah….
(That Jeffy…he is a stinker!)
thus proving holly wood has truely run out of orignality now reduced to making the family circus a film. not to mention it landed at fox which means any of the goodness of the strip fox will strip out and replace with souless shell of the original thing.
What goodness?
Family Circus has degenerated from a pile of crap to a rotting pile of crap.
The original strips were awful, and half the new ones are slightly redrawn reruns!
Whoever came up with this should be fired.