With the Twilight-busting box-office performance of **Despicable Me **happily fresh in their minds, Universal are rubbing their hands and pondering their next animated collaboration with Illumination Entertainment. And according to the LA Times, they think they have it, in the form of the Curious George** movie currently in development.
Larry Stuckey, who wrote the in-production Little Fockers, has been working on the script, which is set to "start from scratch", re-telling the story of the mischievous monkey, brought from the jungles of Africa to the streets of a big city by the nameless Man With the Yellow Hat. The books, by H. A. Rey and Margaret Rey, basically all follow the same formula, with the monkey causing trouble and The Man fixing it up. But they're adorable regardless.
That start-over is necessary because it's only four years since we last saw a Curious George. Directed by Matthew O'Callaghan (at short notice) and produced by Ron Howard and David Kirschner, again for Universal, it featured Will Ferrell as the voice of Yellow Hat along with Drew Barrymore, and Eugene Levy and a Jack Johnson soundtrack that hung around longer than the film, and while not exactly a hit, it wasn't a disaster either. There was a DTV sequel, Follow That Monkey, earlier this year.
That Despicable Me animation could make for some monkey magic, but the gentle formula will need some serious energising if it's to take on the mighty likes of Pixar and Dreamworks. Is this the right next project for Illumination, or will it trip up Universal's bid to be animation players at the second hurdle?