Remember Wishbone? Yes, the PBS TV show about a Jack Russell terrier who acts out parts in short adaptations of famous books while his human friends work through a mystery or some personal trial. It ran for 2 seasons in 1995-1997, had a feature-length TV film in 1998, ran reruns til 2001, and inspired several book series. Well, if you’re feeling the warm rush of nostalgia, good news: Wishbone is getting developed into a feature film.
Oscar-winning producer Peter Farrelly with be producing the movie with Mattel Films. The screenplay will be penned by Roy Parker, whose only major credit before this was writing one episode of The Blacklist. The film will be executive produced by Robbie Brenner, head of Mattel Films.
“Our deep library of iconic franchises continues to offer cinematic storytelling opportunities,” Brenner tells Deadline. “We’re thrilled to be working with Peter Farrelly, Roy Parker and Universal to take the beloved dog classic into a new direction with a modern reimagination of the franchise.”
Now, of course, there’s no word if the movie will follow the format of the TV show, but I can’t imagine how they would tackle it otherwise and still make it recognizably Wishbone. The question would be whether the film will adapt multiple books and stories, perhaps from one author or style of writing, or if they will tackle one super long book. Can you imagine Wishbone playing Pierre in War and Peace? Or maybe Ishmael in Moby Dick?
We’ll continue to cover this project as new updates come through.
