Obviously a sign of the internet zeitgeist, only in this generation can a lowly internet meme have the potential to be turned into a million-dollar box office blockbuster. The above image — illustrated by Greek software engineer and fantasy artist Alex Panagopoulos — depicting a teddy bear standing up to nightmares incarnate will reportedly be given the Hollywood treatment, with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Beau Flynn of FlynnPicturesCo set to produce the film tentatively titled Teddy Bear. Wait a minute, aren’t Johnson and Flynn attached to Journey 2: The Mysterious Island? And on that note, doesn’t Johnson have a penchant for starring in family-friendly fare like Tooth Fairy? If that’s the case, then that teddy bear’s going to need a much bigger sword and shield.
Joining Johnson and Flynn to form a triumvirate of film industry evil is Hiram Garcia, Johnson’s former assistant and associate producer of the aforementioned money-making crapstorm Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. Garcia was the one who stumbled upon the illustration and presented it to FlynnPictureCo and New Line Cinema as he saw the potential of a possible film adaptation.
At this time, no writer has been chosen to pen the film’s screenplay, but New Line Cinema aims to replicate the success of Seth MacFarlane’s comically raunchy tale of a stuffed animal given life, Ted. Though it goes without saying that Teddy Bear will have a much more family friendly slant. The studio also plans to launch the movie as a franchise that will appeal to all four major audience demographics.
While the idea of a teddy bear as a sentinel of good dreams is a simple yet universally recognizable concept that is long overdue for an epic cinematic fantasy, we can’t help but feel apprehensive about the producers on board the project. Judging by their past work, we wouldn’t be at all surprised if the movie ends up being those ones filmed entirely in front of green screen with settings superficially rendered in CGI. So any hopes of it harking back to those days when family movies were sometimes dark, creepy, and still entertaining are certainly out the window.
(Hollywood Reporter via Gamma Squad, image courtesy of begemott)
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