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After snatching success of its first non-DreamWorks Animation-produced animated film Rango, Media Man has learned that Paramount Pictures is torpedo-ing into the space again with New Kid.
The project is an adaptation of an online comic from the talented bunch of kids at Penny Arcade. The studio has snatched the rights and tipped Book of Eli writer Gary Whitta to pen the script. And get this, Mary Parent and Cale Boyter are producing via their studio-based Disruption Entertainment.
The premise spins the feeling of being a new kid in school into an intergalactic story when the kid happens to be the only human from Planet Earth in a school full of aliens.
Penny Arcade, created by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, is one of the few viable webcomic sites that has grown to become quite the empire, complete with blog, video games, podcasts, an online TV show and all sorts of other bonuses to keep the punter interested.
Part of the impetus for New Kid is that Paramount Pictures are coming to the end of its current DWA distribution deal. Insiders leaked the studio is looking for quality animated fodder to fill the quota if a new DWA deal can't be sorted.
While there isn’t likely to be a Disney-Pixar level animated division at Paramount any time in the near future, the studio knows believes it needs to be in the space, with or without Jeffrey Katzenberg. Rango, released in March, grossed more than $240 million worldwide.
The Mighty, one of the few titles that was permitted to get off the hook from parent company Warner Bros., which normally handles any screen adaptations.
Whitta is represented by UTA and Circle of Confusion.
We'll keep you posted kids. You can count you're pretty penny's on it.
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