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BREAKING: 20th Century Fox Animation and Ice Age makers Blue Sky Studios will turn Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Woodstock and the whole Peanuts gang into an animated feature film franchise. Fox has closed a deal for rights to turn the strip by the late Charles Schulz into a film that has already been set for release on November 25, 2015. That date commemorates the 65th anniversary of the comic strip and the 50th anniversary of the TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Fox Animation has set director Steve Martino, who co-directed the Fox/Blue Sky hit Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who! and Fox Animation’s latest blockbuster, Ice Age: Continental Drift. The screenplay is by Craig Schulz and the writing team of Bryan Schulz & Cornelius Uliano. Craig Schulz and Bryan Schulz, who are Schulz’s son and grandson, will produce with Uliano.
Deal came after two years of rights negotiations with the Schulz family, culminating in a agreement announced by Fox Animation president Vanessa Morrison. So much of the family film game is built around branded properties, and few family brands are as well known globally as Peanuts.
The Schulz strip was read daily by 355 million people in 75 countries and spawned such Emmy-winning specials as It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
Also playing a key role in the deal was Neil Cole, CEO and president of Iconix Brand Group which, in a joint venture with Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates, formed Peanuts Worldwide in 2010, the home to the global Peanuts property. Fox Animation director of development Ralph Millero worked closely with Morrison and with the Schulz estate in securing the rights to the property.
Said Fox Animation’s Morrison: “We are thrilled to partner with the Schulz family and Iconix and honored to bring the Peanuts characters to the big screen. This all started with our love and respect for the work of Charles Schulz. We thank the Schulz family and Iconix for letting Fox and Blue Sky bring his vision to new generations of film goers.”
Craig Schulz, President, Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates, said, “We have been working on this project for years. We finally felt the time was right and the technology is where we need it to be to create this film. I am thrilled we will be partnering with Blue Sky/Fox to create a Peanuts movie that is true to the strip and will continue the legacy in honor of my father.”
Said Iconix Brand Group CEO Cole: “This is a momentous step for the Peanuts brand. The beloved characters, Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the whole gang resonate with multiple generations all over the world. This film will give us a new medium in which to engage consumers globally and showcase the power of the Peanuts brand.
CAA brokered the deal along with the Ziffren law firm.
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What a disaster! Animating those characters in CGI is a train wreck waiting to happen. All of our great memories of the years of cel animated Peanuts specials will be tarnished by the makers of “Ice Age”…
This was barely just announced so no one knows what it will look like, and Blue Sky does a lot more than just Ice Age. That’s just one franchise, I personally loved Rio.
It’s obviously going to be CGI. Blue Sky hasn’t done anything in any other medium. They are a digital animation house. While I agree with TW’s post, I think the bigger issue here is Blue Sky’s lack of storytelling abilities. I saw Rio, and it was mediocre. All corny gags, and a story that couldn’t sustain the first 20 minutes.
Well shame… ( and yes you are ) Blue Sky is NOT writing the story. You will feel like an idiot when it comes out ! It will stick closely to the original Peanuts. That is why it took two years to negotiate.
The only way to stick closely to the original Peanuts is by having Charles Schulz himself write it. Any idiot could tell you that film vs. TV vs. comic strips are all very different forms. If it was so easy to replicate Charles Schulz’s genius, there would be hundreds of brilliant comic strips out there. The simple truth is that there aren’t.
Dude…seriously. Look at Blue Sky’s track record. I love Peanuts (and Blue Sky’s Ice Age series is a not so guilty pleasure). The made for TV episodes of Peanuts are classic, and groundbreaking. Any new ‘modern’ interpretation of the Peanuts gang is going to be disastrous. The whole point about Schulz’s cartoon was that it was a commentary on nostalgia, a commentary on being a kid. I can already imagine the fart jokes…and folks, it’s not pretty.
It’s spelled out in the article: Craig Schulz says, “the technology is where we need it to be to create this film.” He is obviously referring to CG.
WTF? Peanuts is the anti-technology property. Simple, 2D, classic.
I’m sure Blue Sky is going to make sure that Lucy and Linus check their Facebook pages, Woodstock is going to send “Tweets,” and many other bad gags that Charles Schulz, a true genius, would never have tolerated.
If this movie is to keep up with present day kid-focused movies, there will likely be a scene where Charlie Brown farts loudly and giggles – and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if this movie included of the Peanuts gang coming-out as a homosexual (probably Lucy)…I mean, c’mon man, this is 2012 – why preserve the innocence of the Charles Schultz’s original works?
If the movie version doesn’t have franklin, then it’s worthless.
As long as they use Vince Guaraldi’s music, I’m there!
Thumbs up!
This is a joke, right? Aren’t these the same people from the Schultz family who have been responsible for the terrible “Peanuts” TV shows and specials over the last few years? Maybe I’m wrong, but I think I read an interview when one of the shows aired. My kids have tried watching them, but they have been awful. Now these people are paired with the studio who produced “Ice Age”? Charles Schultz is going to be rolling over in his grave for the next 3 years.
This will be a disaster. Just because your last name is Schultz doesn’t guarantee success. The children seem to think their Dad’s greatness has been passed down. Newsflash: It hasn’t.
I worked at Blue Sky back in 2005, and this deal was in the works back then. That is one long negotiation. Congrats!
I’m also a Blue Sky alum. This whole project pre-dated Vanessa Morrison.
The Peanuts Gang Has Always Been A Big Part Of My Famlies Life, I Wish That They Would Put Them Back On TV For The Long Run. I Think That I’ts Great That A Movie Of This Classic Cartoon Is Coming Out, But Why So Long?
I love when people are certain authors will be rolling in their graves. The earliest specials were great, but there were dozens created during Schulz’s lifetime that were horrible. Not to mention the last decade or so of the strip itself. Don’t get me wrong–Schulz was one of the foremost creative geniuses of the 20th century, and the first two decades of the strip were absolutely brilliant. But rolling in his grave? You clearly have no idea what you’re talking about.
That being said, I’m not excited about this news. Although Steve Martino is a great and very talented guy.
They should let Wes Anderson do a stop-motion version using the 3D figures of the Peanuts characters from the old View-Master reels.
The ICE AGE people? Blech, as Lucy would say.
How about a Wes Anderson stop motion Peanuts movie. That I could live with! ‘Specially if it has a soundtrack by Vince Guaraldi.
What!! NO NO NO!!
Blue Sky would be wise to seek out the nerd herd – headed by the liked of Chris Ware, Chip Kidd and Dan Clowes – who worship the original Schultz strips.
Peanuts cartoons had an almost strange melancholy to them, a dismay similar to “The Graduate”, displayed in silent walks home surrounded by cheesy Xmas lights, existential sighs, cynical, money hungry therapists (as portrayed by Lucy), long waits to punt that ended in a rip off, pets that were embarrassed to be seen with their owner…It would be a huge mistake for Blue Sky to retool the material and turn it into a SSRI-fuelled, manic, pop sludge reference-filled corporate embalming. For this film to succeed beyond one gimmicky film, it will have to appeal to the adult fans who loved it first. Aside from fan fetishism in Japan, most children don’t really “get” Charlie Brown and need a reintroduction.
Mood is so important to this movie if they want more. The movie can be gloomy and cosmic at points – just end on a happy note. Unfortunately, Blue Sky has yet to show this kind of understanding of nuance. Maybe they weren’t “allowed” to.
#”Keep Snoopy walking on all fours!
Just keep the teachers talking with the sound of the trumpet and trombone and this will be worth seeing no matter how old you are.
Greed knows no bounds. The first couple movies were excellent as were the first couple TV specials (Christmas and Halloween). But they were excellent because they looked and sounded like the comic strips – complete with humor and childhood melancholy (a ‘children’s movie’ doesn’t get sadder than “Snoopy Come Home”). As a child, I loved it. If the more recent specials are any indication of the way the family views this property, it’ll be more Warner Brothers cartoon slapstick than what Charles wrote and drew for 50 years.
Did no one at the Schultz compound learn nothing from how the Henson family botched the Muppets for the past 20 years (Denny’s commercials and really unfunny guest spots on reality programs such as Extreme Makeover). It wasn’t until the recent Muppet movie that someone remembered the sensibility of these characters that made them popular in the first place…and that’s shown up in every format they’ve appeared in (on line videos, tv interviews,etc).
Well, we’ve weathered a slew of unfunny remakes and reboots over the past few years, fans of the strip will weather this (although I advise picking up the excellent Fantagraphics Peanuts chronology series.. a complete collection of every strip ever published.. fascinating and hilarious!)
Maybe Bill Watterson will come around as well…
This is the perfect time to try a “Peanuts” film franchise with the blessing of the Schultz family.If the final result has a kind of “Pixar” quality,you could do something that will last and help keep the “Peanuts” gang alive. One can imagine a summer movie with great family appeal and maybe even a feature expanding on the Christmas tv special.If done carefully and well,the results could be very worthwhile.
If you want Pixar quality, then you should work with Pixar.
Pixar is gone. It is now being digested by Disney into a low rent sequel factory, which they promised they would never do. Pixar threw away their chance to be a true indie, with corporate distribution, a creative titan. But those turds in Hawaiian shirts up in Emeryville wanted that stock…
Time for an adult to weigh in on this issue:
“Wa wa wa wawa wa wa waaaaa.”
Ha. Fox will probably replace the trombone “adult voice” with John Leguizamo and other “hip” voice casting.
I pitched this long ago to Fox Animation… ‘Seasons’ was my title featuring the gang. Let’s hope these writers do it justice.
I understand the working title is “It’s Only an Acorn, Charlie Brown”, and that Scrit will have a cameo.
Bill Watterson never licensed any “realizations” of Calvin and Hobbes because he respected the art form of hand-drawn comics so much.
I’ve lived with some of the awful Peanuts merchandise because a lot of it was approved by Schulz himself. But still, there are some real stinkers out there.
And these days some of the merchandise, even some of the greeting cards, just don’t have the same style and feeling of the hand-drawn characters.
The first special produced following Schulz’s death was bloated and in need of editing, although in many other ways it WAS a good attempt at trying to get back to the look and feel earliest TV specials. With a decent story editor, I’d like to see more, but not in CG.
As Snoopy would have said, “A Dog has more loyalty”!
Greed was never the point when Bill Melendez helped create “a franchise”.
Bill Melendez is dead, but Lee Mendelson is alive. The Schulz family turned their back on some of the people who helped to get them here. If they had hearts, they would do right by those people. I wouldn’t mess with karma.
From what I’ve heard, the Schultz family definitely has some important choices to make about who to include in the project. It seems to me that they would do the right thing, but who knows…
It’s good that they are in the driver’s seat, though it is not going to be easy to make a great film on such a short schedule. I hope the Schultz son and grandson can capture their dad/grandfather’s tone and very unique voice. I’m rooting for the project to succeed, but there isn’t much room for error.
In light of this news, It’s a true shame that Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts,” animated by Bill Melendez and crew for many years, will go from traditionally endearing, into commercialized oblivion.
It’s going to be a very tricky property to get right. They could do a sort of 3D Cartoon effect that keeps the sort of 2D but adds shading and toning to give them 3D aspects. If they go full 3D, they could easily lose the look of the characters.
Then there’s the story and voices. If they just have famous people do the voices of the characters, it would be a disaster (Tom Cruise as Charlie Brown, Rianna as Lucy, etc) And then if they just have the characters interacting with new things like cellphones and the internet and some standard “Goonies” type of storyline, that could easily ruin it as well. Very tough nut to crack… I wish them well though – I’d love to see it done with a real emotional story, and the light humor that reflects some of the aspects of the orginal comic strip.
I worked at Industrial Light & Magic back when “The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle” was in post-production there. CGI didn’t work for that property and it will be even more disasterous for Peanuts. 2 1/2D never works out for things like this.
This news story, honestly, breaks my heart.
As a lifelong fan I really hope they remain true to the strip’s origins. The recent Warm Blanket DVD is exactly the look and feel they should try to duplicate, not the 80s and 90s era specials, and I think that “upgrading” to CG technology (or worse, 3D) might backfire. I love the CG movies of today that Pixar and other studios have cranked out, but the recent Pooh movie shows (to me anyway) that traditional animation can still work really well. It’s my hope that the Schulz family’s involvement will curb studio excesses and keep everyone mindful of what Peanuts is all about.
I just don’t know about you people. This is *VERY* exciting. These new specials these last few years were AWESOME (especially ‘I Want A Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown’), and anyone who can’t appreciate the faithful take these new specials have delivered, certainly won’t appreciate CGI updates on the characters.
Fact is, it worked for Chipmunks, garfield, and Smurfs, so it’s CLEARLY. A successful biz model…
No one is saying it isn’t a successful business model. But those movies you cite were mostly pure shit — Smurfs was terrible, Garfield was awful, and Chipmunks annoying. You’re clearly a biased “plant” because those Peanuts specials over the last few years were horrible and boring. And, if that’s what they’re using as a representation of the quality for this movie, we are all in for a big disappointment.