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Universal and Illumination Remaking 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas'

by Ethan Anderton
February 7, 2013
Source: Variety

After teaming up to bring Dr. Seuss' tales such as The Lorax and Horton Hears a Who to the big screen, Universal Pictures and Illuminaton Entertainment are teaming up again to animate one of the authors rhyming stories. However, this time will mark the first collaboration adapting a book that has already seen two different versions made. Variety reports How the Grinch Stole Christmas is on the docket for an animated adaptation that will be more faithful to the book, which actually lends itself better to the three act structure of a film, making it so less original material has to be created to pad out a feature film adaptation.

Pete Candeland is set to make his feature directorial debut with the film after working as an animator on old projects like Balto and "Aladdin: The Animated Series." More recently, Candeland has been behind the music videos for the animated band Gorillaz. As for when we might see this film, it sounds like it's a few years away. Variety pegs the film for arrival around the time of the 50th anniversary of the 1966 Chuck Jones animated special featuring the voice of Boris Karloff and one of the most famous Christmas jingles of all time. So that means the film would likely arrive in 2016.

Illumination has found great success with their Dr. Seuss projects, and they still have a Cat in the Hat animated project and a Dr. Seuss biopic in the works as well. However, I just wish that we weren't getting another familiar tale hitting the big screen. We all know the story (though apparently it's not so well-known in non-English territories), and if it's going to be more faithful to the book, then there's not much more that can be brought to the table. Of course, it can't be any worse than Ron Howard's haphazard live-action take that let Jim Carrey run a little too wild and looked inexplicably foggy all the time. Thoughts?

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