Movies
Another Trip to the Freak ‘Zoo’ in New Adaptation
This past March we reported that New Line Cinema had won a bidding war for David Gilcreast’s comedy spec script CRYPTOZOOLOGISTS, which would follows scientists who track mythical creatures such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster and have to deal with the sudden appearance of the creatures in San Francisco. It appears that this won’t be the only “ologist” film being made next year as Cryptocrew Zoo is next. Read on for the skinny.
Alcon Entertainment has picked up the rights to “Cryptozoo Crew,” a graphic novel by Jerry Carr and Allan Gross, tapping screenwriter Joe Gazzam to adapt it into a big screen feature.
Alcon’s Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson will produce with Lloyd Phillips and Circle of Confusion’s production arm.
“Cryptozoo” follows a member of a secret organization charged with protecting the identity of strange and rare animals classified as Cryptids who teams with a beautiful doctor in a quest to protect a one-of-a-kind species from falling into the wrong hands.
We’re assuming from the comic cover below these “animals” will also be infamous beasts like the Abominable Snowman – errr “Improbable” Snowman.
Alcon development executive Jesse Israel brought the project to the Warner Bros.-based shingle and will oversee it with senior vp development Steven Wegner.
Gazzam, repped by ICM and Circle of Confusion, wrote the initial draft for “Scared Straight,” which Nu Image/Millennium Films is making with Nicolas Cage and John Carpenter. He also worked on the “21 Jump Street” feature.
Described as “Ted meets ET,” David Mikalson’s raunchy comedy Goblin is being brought to life over at A24, and Will Forte (“The Four Seasons”) is now in talks to star.
Deadline first reported the news this afternoon.
Kenneth Branagh has been cast to voice the titular Goblin in the upcoming A24 movie, with the character said to be “green-colored” as well as “anatomically correct.”
Skyler Gisondo (Superman) is reportedly playing the Goblin’s human best friend.
The mysterious project sounds a bit like films including A Gnome Named Gnorm and more recently, Frankie Freako, though it’s important to note that it’s not billed as a horror movie.
Deadline details, “After [Mikalson] hatched the idea to make an outrageous buddy comedy about a goblin, using a practical puppet and operating outside the Hollywood system, his script quickly got him a rep team. While others might have eyed the raunchy comedy as a writing sample or planned to wait to see the micro-budget version Mikalson has been directing in Kentucky, A24 jumped all over it. The hot indie essentially has agreed to finance a full feature.”
“There was a lot of interest, but A24 came with what Mikalson really wanted, after spending all his money crafting the puppet title character: they acquired the movie and agreed to let him make it with a significantly increased budget than what he had left after creating the anatomically correct title character,” Deadline’s report goes on to explain.
What does the titular Goblin actually look like? Well, a cake that Mikalson had whipped up for his reps might give us our first look at what to expect. Deadline explains the photo you’ll see down below, “Take a look at the cake he commissioned with Marc Gravelle at Cake Art in West Hollywood, to present to his reps as thanks for making his dream come true.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.