The Flanimals.
In 2009, it was announced that Illumination Entertainment was currently in the process of creating a film based on the children's book Flanimals by Ricky Gervais (of The Office fame). It was supposed to be Illumination Entertainment's first feature-length film.[1]
Plot[]
Fifty species of creatures are so ugly and misshapen they become cute and endearing. One of these creatures, a pudgy, perspiring purple creature, goes on a mission to change the world.
Development[]
Gervais himself was confirmed to be the executive producer as well as the voice of Puddloflaj. Also that The Simpsons writer Matt Selman would write the script, back in 2009 Comb through Ricky's blog you can see that Karl agreed to do an audiobook based on him ripping into Flanimals, presumably similar the video put up in 2006 of him doing the same. Within the same blog entry, Ricky writes 'He has also agreed to be a voice in The Flanimals movie. He's already stressing about it too. Ha ha'. We can also read from one of Ricky's blogs that he wanted Steve Carell involved: 'I've got a part in the Flanimals Movie for him but I haven't asked him yet In Summer 2010, Ricky was sued for flanimals. John Savage, who wrote a book called 'Captain Pottie's Wildlife Encyclopedia' which contains bizarre creatures of Savage's making and was published in 2000 claimed that Flanimals was 'broadly the same in content and character' as his own book. Ricky Denied this and stated 'the concept and illustrations of Flanimals pre-existed John Savage's work'. A point of contention seems to be around aforementioned 80 million dollar(!) film that was being produced at the same time One of the last mentions in Ricky's blog of the Flanimals film is from Autumn 2011 The Flanimals Movie wont be out till the end of next year. Yes I have a part for Karl in it. He's perfect for most Flanimals to be honest as they are all dim with weird shaped heads constantly moaning about the futility of existence the film was still a go-er over a year after the debacle around the copyright claim. Unfortunately and obviously the film was never made.
A Possible Reason It Was Cancelled[]
- I believe the reason for this movie never coming to light was because When the movie was being made Gervis got sued by an another author named John savage for plagerizing his book 'Captain Pottie's Wildlife Encyclopedia' even though the lawsuit was dropped this was most likely the reason for its cancellation .
Results[]
- Flanimals remained as a book.
- The Flanimals movie was permanently shelved.
- In 2010, Despicable Me was instead Illumination Entertainment's first feature-length movie.
- ITV commissioned a television series based on the books in back in 2009, but that was cancelled as well before the movie was going to be made .[2]
Trivia[]
- This film, had it been released, was going to have a short called Brad and Gary, a storyboard(s) for the short can be found on the SlideShare website of story artist and director Didier Ah Koon.[3]