Sonic the Hedgehog director Jeff Fowler has signed on to helm a new live-action/CG hybrid Pink Panther movie for MGM.
This won't be another take on the Inspector Clouseau character previously played by Peter Sellers and Steve Martin, but a big-screen outing for the silent, rose-colored cat first introduced during the film series' opening credits. The laid-back feline would go on to feature in an Oscar-winning animated short, before getting his own TV series in 1964.
Bad Boys For Life co-writer Chris Bremner is penning the script for this new movie, which is being described as "a modern re-imagining of the Panther story with live-action humans and a CG Panther."
Lawrence Mirisch, Julie Andrews Edwards of Geoffrey Productions, Rideback’s Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich are producing, with Walter Mirisch and Rideback’s Ryan Halprin on board as executive producers.
“Popular the world over, the legacy of the iconic Pink Panther has endured for more than 50 years and continues to be discovered by new generations,” said Michael De Luca, MGM Film Group chairman, and Pamela Abdy, MGM Film Group president. “We are so happy to come together with Jeff, Chris, Larry, Julie, Dan, Jonathan, Walter and Ryan to bring one of MGM’s most well-loved franchise back to the big screen and in a way audience have never seen before.”
Fowler delivered a massive hit for Paramount with Sonic, so there's nothing to say he can't repeat that success with the Pink Panther.