Since its first issue was published ten years ago, David Peterson’s Mouse Guard has been dazzling us with its gorgeous artwork and heroic tales. (Tails?) The story of a group of noble medieval mice, tasked with defending their fellow rodents, has become an epic saga throughout the years, filled with unforgettable imagery and an alarming sense of scale.
This week, the potential for Mouse Guard to be a movie unlike anything we’ve ever seen (well, except maybe for certain parts of The Secret of NIMH) has finally been recognized by Hollywood studios: 20th Century Fox has acquired the rights to produce a Mouse Guard movie, one that will be produced using the same type of photorealistic CGI effects as this year’s massive blockbuster, The Jungle Book.
The screenplay will be written by Gary Whitta, who also penned the script for the upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and the film will be produced by Matt Reeves, who previously dazzled us all with the motion capture performances in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. That being said, Hollywood Reporter is making it clear that Reeves currently has no plans to actually direct the Mouse Guard movie.
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While it’s possible that Hollywood was simply waiting for the technology to catch up to Mouse Guard before green lighting a motion picture adaptation, the wait may also have something to do with a series of underperforming mouse movies over the last ten years, including Flushed Away and The Tale of Depereaux. (Yes, Ratatouille was a hit, but Ratatouille was about rats, wasn’t it?)
Mouse Guard was originally published by Archaia before moving to Boom! Studios, a company that will help produce the motion picture adaptation of David Peterson’s stories. The next Mouse Guard mini-series, Mouse Guard: The Weasel Wars, is scheduled to debut in 2017.
Top Photo: Boom! Studios
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved, Rapid Reviews and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
