The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Kung Fu Panda director Mark Osborne has been tapped to direct the feature adaptation of Jeff Smith’s Bone comic for Warner Bros. He will co-write the script with Adam Kline.
“Bone is very special and unconventional because it blends elements together that you don’t necessarily expect — soft, little comic characters and epic high stakes fantasy adventure,” Osborne told the outlet. “To carry this into the cinematic realm presents both an opportunity to represent what readers of all ages have loved about the series, while pushing animated storytelling into exciting and different areas.”
The fantasy series, which ran irregularly from 1991 to 2004, followed three cousins from the Bone family, who are small, white and bald humanlike creatures with big noses. The trio are run out of their hometown and find themselves in a mysterious valley where they are separated and hunted by other creatures. They are taken in by a girl named Thorn and her grandmother, Rose, and find out that the valley is threatened by an evil force called the Lord of the Locusts.
The feature film adaptation of Bone has been in development for a few years with P.J. Hogan (Confessions of a Shopaholic) previously attached to direct.
