22 Jun – There is one thing that filmmaker Ron Howard has yet to do, and that is directing an animated film. That's about to change, however, as Variety reported that he is set to direct an animated feature adaptation of "The Shrinking of Treehorn". The children's book, written by Florence Parry Heide and illustrated by Edward Gorey, was originally published in 1971 and tells of a boy who starts shrinking after playing a strange board game, which his parents don't even notice.
The movie, set up at Paramount Pictures, will have a script written by Rob Lieber ("Peter Rabbit," "Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day"). This is just one of the four animation and live-action projects Howard and Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment is working on with Australian production company Animal Logic ("The Lego Movie" franchise). Another animated feature set at Paramount is "Rainbow Serpent", said to be deeply rooted in Australian aboriginal culture with Stuart Beattie ("Pirates of the Caribbean", "GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra") penning the script. The third project, a buddy comedy called "Zero" and set to be directed by Carlos Stevens, will be distributed by Warner Bros. A live-action hybrid movie, "Muttnik", is the fourth project in the works. There is no distributor yet, but it is known that the story follows a dog launched into space by the Russians. It crosses the space-time continuum and when it returns home to its family, the dog is now an evolved creature. (Photo source: Ron Howard's Instagram)