"Where's Waldo" is in development now.
World traveler, Where’s Waldo? will be journeying to the big screen as a motion picture being developed by Universal and Illumination Entertainment as reported earlier last week by Variety, and confirmed by recent postings on the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB.)
In these tough economic times, the Waldo screen rights, which were secured by Universal and Illumination, can almost guarantee easy recognition at the box office.
Waldo or “Wally” as he was first known in the United Kingdom was introduced to children in 1987 under the book titled, Where’s Waldo? and featured the brightly dressed world traveler, beckoning children to find him within the pages of crowd and object packed illustrations.
Over the last 20-plus years, Where’s Waldo? went on to become one of the most successful franchise stories ever, as the character spawned a series of books; a magazine; comic strip; dolls; toys; games, and a television series.
The book, written and illustrated by Martin Handford, was enormously successful and was translated into multiple languages selling over 50 million copies, as it was ideal in fostering a youngster’s observational skills and concentration levels, while teaching them to develop patience in predicting outcomes.
The title was not without controversy at one point, for it was listed as one of the top 100 most banned books between 1990 and 2000 from the American Library Association's "Challenged and Banned Books," for the infinitesimal, partially exposed bare breast in a crowd-infested beach scene.
With Illumination’s head honcho, Christopher Meledandri leading the production helm of Where’s Waldo ?the film will most likely be family friendly entertainment, such as his well-received 2008 movie, Horton Hears a Who and Ice Age: The Meltdown from 2006.
However, Where’s Waldo? might prove to be a creative challenge for extra casting directors and/or graphic artists in translating the famous crowd packed scenes into reportedly “live action,” but once completed the movie patrons should follow.
If you enjoyed this article, you may want to read:
2011 U.S. holiday season release date set for Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin
The iconic Cat, created by Dr. Seuss is set for the small screen
Now for a peek back in time to the animated television series
Comments