Jeff Smith’s beloved comic series “Bone,” a fantasy story about three lumpy, white, people-looking things, has been the subject of movie adaptation talks for quite some time. First Paramount was going to do something with the property, then Nickelodeon, and finally the rights landed over at Warner Bros., where last word was that they were planning a CG-animated trilogy, news that was beefed up by a four-minute short that showed off what the Bone cousins could look like. I’m not certain if these new developments are attached to that short in any way, or even if a trilogy is still the direction WB is planning on going with this one, but according to Heat Vision there are new developments concerning at least some sort of animated Bone project. They say that Sean Patrick Smith, the creator of the ABC Family series Greek, has been tapped to write a script for a Bone film, with Peter Pan director P.J. Hogan coming on to helm. Animal Logic, the animation house behind Happy Feet 2 and that Zack Snyder movie about the talking owls, is set to produce, so the plan right now is for Smith to turn in his script, Hogan to do a polish, with the production of the film then taking place in Australia, where both Hogan and Animal Logic are located.

Between 1991 and 2004 Jeff Smith released 55 issues of his comic book “Bone” and built a legacy as one of the most beloved comic creators of all time. People love “Bone”. I mean, they’re crazy about it. It’s a shame then that it has never managed to get a film adaptation, despite living in the mires of developmental hell for quite a while now. The good news is there seems to be some new traction for the project, and the new stuff that’s popping up is even impressive enough to have Smith pleased with what he has seen. After both Paramount and Nickelodeon swung and missed with the “Bone” property, the rights got moved over to Warner Bros. where several scripts have been tried out but the third seems to be the charm. WB wants to turn their latest take onto the character into a three part, computer animated, 3D film series, and they’ve even put together a four minute short to show off what it would look like. Series creator Smith told the L.A. Times’ Hero Complex that he is, “actually excited about the movie for the first time in a long time.” That’s probably high praise coming from a guy who has reportedly waded through a ton of crappy film treatments of his baby.

There have to be a few comic fans out there that know about the Bone family and the long running independent comic…