In October, Penny Arcade shook things up a bit with a series of three mini-stories, each forming a cinematic opening to a larger story left unexplored. Hollywood wants to explore one of them a bit further, acquiring the rights to “The New Kid”, imagined as an animated feature.
“The New Kid” was the best of the three, in setup, punchline and just being get-able. A young boy is unhappy that his father is uprooting the family for his career again, lamenting that he’ll be the new kid. The hook comes when the strip pulls back to reveal they’re on a space vessel, and he’ll be the new kid on a planet with three-fourths the gravitational pull of Earth.
Because the only story feature-length animated films can tell these days is that of a stranger in a strange land, and the premise of the Penny Arcade strip hints at that, this kind of pitch was an instant-win in Hollywood.
The Hollywood Reporter writes that Paramount has the rights and has assigned Gary Whitta, the writer on The Book of Eli to do the script. Producers are Mary Parent and Cale Boyter of Disruption Entertainment.
Paramount Plots Next Animated Pic with Alien Comic Adaptation ‘New Kid’ (Exclusive) [The Hollywood Reporter]
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