Did you genuinely enjoy Garfield: The Movie and Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties? Do you also have an affection for internet memes that have, as is inevitable, worn out their welcome with everyone except, like, your grandma and that one aunt who spends way too much time on Facebook?
Then you’re probably excited for a Grumpy Cat movie from the producer of Jack and Jill, xXx: State of the Union, and Anger Management.
According to Deadline, it’s a fetch that people are totally trying to make happen:
Broken Road’s Todd Garner and Sean Robins, and Grumpy Cat’s reps (manager Ben Lashes and rep Al Hassas) have teamed up to produce and assemble a package for a Garfield-like feature film with the famous frowning feline at the center. Here, Grumpy Cat (real name Tardar Sauce) will be given the power of speech.
There are lots of folks out there who complain about the mainstreaming of geek culture, but if you ask me, this might be one of the most egregious examples. It’s a phenomenon created entirely on the backs of anonymous internet folks getting small laughs out of throwing text on a picture of a cat. Who among the folks who actually participated in Grumpy Cat’s rise to internet prominence are genuinely interested in watching at least 90 minutes of lukewarm comedy delivered from her computer animated mouth? I’d wager not many. I’d be honestly surprised if any of the humor in the film was actually derived from the meme-ified Grumpy Cat Joke, and not because of concerns about a user who can prove they made a similar joke on some forum a year ago lawyering up and demanding money. For better or worse, that genre of internet humor is not ready for its close up, Mr. DeMille, and it might never be. Now that is repurposing for another audience.
On the bright side, should this actually become a feature film, we will at least know the exact, historical date when the Advice Animal meme died. Also I guess it’s a movie with a female lead?
(via Deadline.)
