BONE Movie in the works

There's a movie being made based on the independent graphic novel BONE, by Jeff Smith. And guess what? It's going to be CG, with mo-cap. :P Not how I picture it at all.

edited 23rd Nov '10 6:32:48 PM by Shota

Computer Animation I can live with. But Mo-Cap?

Ugh. Only if they use it just for the Human characters.

This sounds a lot like the new Roger Rabbit movie that's coming out. I just hope they handle the Dragons and Rat Creatures well.

I'd be fine with it, and would actually think it'd look pretty cool, but there's one issue—the Bones themselves. I so very much hope it turns out like the Curious George film—they render them on computers, realize they look horribly freakish, and decide to stick to 2D.

I always got the sense of a Roger Rabbit Effect even from the comic. I am going to be very picky about whatever style they come up with, since BONE and me date waaaaaaaay back.

I'm thinking more along the lines of this.

edited 24th Nov '10 5:13:14 AM by Shota

My understanding is, Jeff Smith would prefer it to be 2D. Warner Brothers plans on making it 3D CGI, but they're currently considering Jeff Smith's idea.

So, it's a long shot, but not impossible?

Time to start sacrificing small children on the alter of the Animation Gods.

I imagine that in 3D, the movie would look something like the Bone Video Game [1]

This needs to be in 2D at all costs. I refuse to believe you need to be CGI to be a theatrical release that's taken seriously. It would look better like that anyway.

Agreed "Animation isn't a genre, it's a medium"

You never hear of a live-action studio that has been making so-so films looking over at a studio that's making great movies and going, 'Oh, we see the difference - we're using a different camera.

It seemed 2D animation became the scapegoat for bad storytelling. -John Lasseter

edited 24th Nov '10 4:45:50 PM by Mattonymy

Jeff already said that he is allowing them to produce this in mo-cap, because he knows it's the only way an animated movie these days will be successful. No longer is 2D priority, and it will never gain as much money as it used to!

Jeff Smith should meet Brad Bird, and I'd watch the conversation.

I'm not sure if Bone would work in movie form, unless they divide it into a trilogy (Books #1-3, #4-6, and #7-9 each having a film to themselves).

edited 25th Nov '10 10:37:38 AM by ManwiththePlan

This movie will cover the first two volumes and maybe parts of the third. If this movie is successful, that's exactly what they plan to do.

I thought it was obvious it would go into trilogy form, there's no way you could compress all that plot into one movie.

I wish they would get Matt Chapman to do the voice for Ted the Bug, much like Coach Z.

I still think Danny De Vito would be great as Phoney.

Weren't they trying to make a BONE film back in '99? You know, the one with Britney Spears and N'Sync music (and so thankfully, Jeff Smith rejected it outright).

Either way, a BONE movie sounds really interesting. For some reason, I always thought it would look like either traditional animation, or live action humans with CG creatures. But I have to wonder—if it is being made in traditional animation, what company is comfortable with funding it and distributing it considering the market for 2D (or lack of) right now?

I am quite annoyed with Bone being made with mo-cap. Computer animation, I can handle but its no dice for motion capture. I personally blame Avatar(James cameron's one) for convicing the studio on that part. I'd always saw Bone working out as a similar way to Roger Rabbit. You'd get the bone cousins, the rat creatures, the dragons, as well as the animals animated while the humans are live-action. It sounds like the right formula for it. Also, I'd always pictured the bone cousins sounding similar to Ed Edd N eddy. If I got nothing else to do, I'd see it. But hell I think this would have brought back 2D animation for sure. A few of my friends believe that Jeff Smith became a sellout when he allowed it to be CG mo cap over Hand-drawn animation.

From my understanding, Jeff Smith refused Nick to make a bone movie. He basically said that pop music doesn't mix well with Fantasy. Which I agree with. Funny thing is, a few of my friends and myself were talking about doing an animated film based on the first two books of Bone. But we changed our minds once this happened.

edited 2nd Mar '11 3:37:31 PM by Theoriginalblader

I hope they can capture the funny but also scary atmostphere of the original comics. The Bone comics got a lot of mileage out of that contrast, especially in the use of Mood Whiplash.

I'm more concerned for whether the movie will have the feel and tone of the comics, rather than the "right" medium or proper look.

Man, I really need to the Bone series. Definatly interested in this, though.

Bone is awesome and I especially love the prequels. Anyone else remember The Adventures Of Big Johnson Bone?

Was that the one with the story about the mysterious character who would swing Rat Creatures around by their tails? Thus explaining why the Rat Creatures have such short tails?

Or was that a different story?

I really want to see The Hooded One animated. I don't particularly care how: Bone has always struck me as something that could by it's design and art-style be reasonably well animated in 3-D, so I'm not too worried.

That was Big Johnson Bone, the founder of Boneville. WAIT!

edited 7th Mar '11 1:12:24 PM by maxwellelvis

Haha...Johnson...Bone....Big Johnson Bone...never really noticed that till now