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List of unproduced Paramount Pictures animated projects

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This is a list of unmade and unreleased animated projects by Paramount Pictures. Some of these projects were, or still are, in development limbo. These also include the co-productions the studio collaborated with in the past (i.e. Fleischer Studios, MTV Animation, Nickelodeon Movies, Nickelodeon Animation Studio, and Paramount Animation) as well as sequels to their franchises.

1990s

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1993

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Series Title Description
Feature films Film deal with Nelvana In the fall of 1993, Canadian animation studio Nelvana signed a multi-year deal to produce five animated feature films in collaboration with Paramount Pictures, with Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall producing; the first two began production the following summer, at a cost of over US$20 million each.[1][2] Three of the projects were based on books by E. B. White (The Trumpet of the Swan), Clive Barker (The Thief of Always) and Graeme Base (The Sign of the Seahorse); an original production called Mask Vision was also in the works.[3] However, none of the films were produced in this deal.

1995

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Series Title Description
Feature film Elmo Aardvark film adaptation Shortly after the release of the 1995 Elmo Aardvark album, Will Ryan was approached by Nickelodeon Movies about starring the Elmo character in a feature film. Ryan and writer Phil Lollar developed a film treatment for a mockumentary tracing Elmo's fictional history as a cartoon character, from pre-film origins to the present day some hundred years later. The mockumentary, potentially titled The Elmo Aardvark Story, would feature live-action interviews with figures who would add historical credibility, such as golden-age animator Ward Kimball; these would be interspersed with clips of the Elmo cartoons that had supposedly been produced through the ages, animated in period-appropriate styles.[4] Designer Leslie Cabarga prepared promotional art, while Fayard Nicholas, Joanie Sommers, and "Weird Al" Yankovic were in talks to contribute to the soundtrack. However, negotiations with Nickelodeon administrators became slow-moving, and after a lengthy "development hell" period, the project fell through.[4]

1998

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Series Title Description
Feature film Bone In August 1998, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies acquired the rights to produce an animated film adaptation of the Bone comics.[5] Jeff Smith, author of the Bone comics, stated in a 2003 interview that Nickelodeon had insisted on the Bone cousins being voiced by child actors and wanted the film's soundtrack to include pop songs by the likes of N'Sync. Smith's response was that nobody would insert pop songs in the middle of The Lord of the Rings or The Empire Strikes Back and therefore pop songs should not be placed in Bone either.[6] The film was then developed at Warner Bros. under their Warner Animation Group banner instead. However, in 2019, Netflix purchased the rights to turn Bone into an animated series, which was later cancelled in April 2022 during a reorganization of Netflix Animation.[7][8][9]
Hey Arnold! Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie In 1998, Nickelodeon offered Hey Arnold! creator Craig Bartlett a chance to develop two feature-length films based on the series: one as a TV movie or direct-to-video and another slated for a theatrical release. Nickelodeon asked Bartlett to do "the biggest idea he could think of" for the theatrical film. Albie Hecht, who was president of Nickelodeon at the time, suggested to Bartlett about making the theatrical feature as a spiritual sequel/follow-up to the episode "Parents Day", and have Arnold try to solve the mystery of what happened to his parents. Though after successful test screenings of the made-for-TV movie titled Arnold Saves the Neighborhood, it was decided that it would instead be given a theatrical release in 2002, under the title of Hey Arnold!: The Movie to attract the attention of the public. Around this time, Hecht also asked Bartlett to produce a special one-hour 'prequel' episode titled "The Journal" that would serve as a lead-in to the second movie. The episode debuted on November 11, 2002. But due to the disappointing box office results of the first film, Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie was cancelled and ended up leaving the original series with an unresolved cliffhanger ending. The project was later revived as a two-hour TV film that debuted on November 24, 2017.

2000s

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2002

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Series Title Description
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius Jimmy Neutron 2 In February 2002, a sequel for Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius was reported in development for a summer 2004 release.[10] Producer Albie Hecht reported to The Los Angeles Times that the sequel "would be made on the same budget as the first, but with a new batch of inventions and adventures in Jimmy's town of Retroville." On June 20, 2002, The Hollywood Reporter reported that writer Kate Boutilier had signed a writing deal with Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures to write a sequel, but it never materialized.[11] The film was cancelled because the writers couldn't agree on a story and Alcorn later stated in an interview that "once the TV series came out, there wasn't a lot of incentive to make a movie when fans could simply watch Jimmy Neutron for free at home."[12]
Feature film Imaginary Friend In March 2002, it was announced that Nickelodeon Movies would produce Imaginary Friend, a Gary Ross-helmed live-action/animated hybrid about a boy and his imaginary friend who takes him from the real world to an animated fantasy world. Written by Anne Spielberg, the film would’ve reunited Ross and Spielberg after scripting the 1988 Oscar-nominated Big. Would've been produced by Nickelodeon and Ross' Larger Than Life.[13][14]

2004

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Series Title Description
Feature film Mighty Mouse As early as 2004, Omation Animation Studios and Nickelodeon announced their intention to bring Mighty Mouse (a property held by CBS Corporation) back to the big screen with a CGI Mighty Mouse feature film that was tentatively scheduled to be released sometime in 2013.[15] This film never materialized and the project's fate was unknown until in 2019, when it was confirmed that the project would be revived by Paramount Animation, and that Jon and Erich Hoeber were announced to be the writers for the film.[16][17]

2006

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Series Title Description
The Fairly OddParents Untitled Fairly OddParents animated film In 2005 or 2006, Butch Hartman considered making a theatrical adaptation of his animated television series The Fairly OddParents after the show's initial cancellation in 2006,[vague] to be produced by Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures. The film was to be animated much like the series as well as previous Nickelodeon fare such as the Rugrats trilogy and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, but was scrapped due to a management change at Paramount although the script was already written. Despite this, Hartman expressed interest in releasing the film for DVD someday, and stated that the script could serve for another TV movie of the show. The series ended on July 26, 2017, and Butch Hartman left Nickelodeon in early 2018 before moving to Sony Pictures Animation to plan any direct-to-video sequels to the original film,[18][19] seemingly ending any chances of the film happening.[20]
Feature film The Smurfs In 2006, Paramount obtained the film rights to The Smurfs comics by Peyo and were planning to make a film based on the characters with Nickelodeon Movies. It was described to be an "epic-comedic fantasy", like The Lord of the Rings meets The Princess Bride.[21] Early animation footage was leaked on the internet in early 2008.[22] The film never came to be until Sony Pictures Animation bought the rights thus turning it into the 2011 film of the same name.[23]

2010s

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2010

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Series Title Description
Feature film The New Kid Announced on June 2, 2011, Paramount Pictures had acquired the rights to produce an animated film, via Paramount Animation to make this, of the Penny Arcade one-off strip The New Kid which was published on October 29, 2010. The strip was one of three mini-strips which featured a cinematic opening to a larger story left unexplored.[24] The New Kid is about a boy who's moving to a new planet with his family because of his father's career.[25] The script was written by Gary Whitta and would have been produced by Mary Parent and Cale Boyter.[26]

At PAX Australia in 2016, during a Q&A session, Holkins revealed that changes at Paramount resulted in the movie rights being returned to Penny Arcade and the project canceled. He did note, however, that Whitta's script was complete and the project could move forward with another production company in the future.[27]

The Adventures of Tintin The Adventures of Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun In November 2011, Steven Spielberg announced a sequel to the 2011 film The Adventures of Tintin and was planned to be released sometime in the future.[28] As of 2019, there have been little to no info about the film, but Peter Jackson is still involved with the project.[29][30]


2014

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Series Title Description
Feature film Shedd In January 2014, it was reported that former Disney and Pixar animator John Kahrs would direct for Paramount Animation an animated film titled Shedd, which was based on an original idea by Adam Goodman.[31]
Ren and Stimpy Untitled Ren and Stimpy short film Bob Camp and William Wray revealed in an April 2016 panel discussion that Kricfalusi was developing a new Ren & Stimpy short that would be shown in theaters with the third SpongeBob SquarePants film, and later said that they were "not invited to that party" and would not be involved with the short's production.[32] However, Kricfalusi later denied making such a cartoon on Twitter.[33] Despite this, an animatic of the short that was originally made as a promotion for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water before being cancelled was released as a bonus feature on the Cans Without Labels DVD in May 2019.[34][35]

2015

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Series Title Description
Feature film Giant Monsters Attack Japan Originally announced in 2006 as a live-action Nickelodeon Movies production from Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the film moved to Paramount Animation in 2015 with a script written by Matt Lieberman.[36]
Bodacious Announced in October 2015 as an animated feature produced by Eddie Murphy based on the infamous bull of the same name.[37]
Untitled sci-fi film Paramount Animation acquired the rights to an untitled sci-fi pitch from screenwriter David Frigerio in October 2015, which was described as "tonally Cars set in space".[38]

2016

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Series Title Description
Feature film Untitled Nicktoons film On January 27, 2016, a crossover film involving various classic Nicktoons characters was reported to be in development. Jared Hess was attached to direct, as well as co-write with his wife Jerusha. The film was said to be similar to Who Framed Roger Rabbit.[39] In a later interview in September 2016, Hess said that the script was complete and submitted for approval.[40] No word on development has been reported since.
The Flamingo Affair Announced in June 2016 as a co-production with J.J. Abrams through Bad Robot with a script written by Pamela Pettler. The film was described as a comedic Ocean's Eleven-style heist film with animals in Las Vegas.[41]

2017

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Series Title Description
Wonder Park Adventures in Wonder Park Prior to Wonder Park's release, Paramount Animation announced a television series based on the film, titled Adventures in Wonder Park, to debut on Nickelodeon after the film's theatrical release.[42] Although a trailer for the series was attached to the Blu-ray release of the film, and its first season, consisting of 20 episodes, was completed between 2019 and early 2020, there have been no updates from Nickelodeon on the project as of 2023. The animatic of the pilot was later posted online in December 2022.[43]

2018

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Series Title Description
Feature film Monument Valley In August 2018, Paramount Animation and Weed Road, in partnership with Ustwo Games, announced plans to develop a live action/CGI hybrid film based on the indie game Monument Valley, with Patrick Osborne slated to direct. It was anticipated that the film would feature live actors exploring the computer generated settings based on the game. Osborne stated "I’m privileged to be handed the reins to Ida’s mysterious kingdom, to play in her world of impossible architecture where seeing things differently is everything".[44]

2019

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Series Title Description
Feature film The Shrinking of Treehorn As of 2019, an animated film adaptation of the children's book The Shrinking of Treehorn directed by Ron Howard is said to be in development. The animation would be done by Animal Logic and distributed by Paramount Pictures under its Paramount Animation label.[45] By April 9, 2021, the film's release date was scheduled for November 10, 2023.[46] However, on May 16, 2022, it was announced that the film had been acquired by Netflix with Howard's Imagine Entertainment as its production studio.[47]
Untitled Spice Girls film Speaking in January 2019, following the announcement of the Spice Girls reunion tour, Simon Fuller confirmed plans to make an animated sequel to Spice World.[48] On 13 June 2019, it was reported that Paramount Animation president Mireille Soria had greenlit the project, with all five members of the band returning. The project would be produced by Simon Fuller, with Karen McCullah and Kiki Smith writing the screenplay, and would feature both previous and original songs.[49] The film would feature the band as superheroes.[50]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ McRoberts, Kenneth (1995). Beyond Quebec: Taking Stock of Canada, p. 175. McGills-Queens University Press. ISBN 0-7735-1314-0. Retrieved June 22, 2006.
  2. ^ Maddever, Mary (September 11, 1995). "Nelvana boosts feature involvement". Playback. Retrieved July 2, 2006.
  3. ^ Tolusso, Susan (March 28, 1994). "Nelvana joins the public procession..." Playback. Retrieved June 30, 2006.
  4. ^ a b Gore, Chris (1999), The 50 Greatest Movies Never Made, New York: St. Martin's Griffin, pp. 74–78, ISBN 9780312200824
  5. ^ Hindes, Andrew (August 20, 1998). "Nick Movies buys film rights to 'Bone' comics". Variety. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  6. ^ "Alexandra DuPont Interviews BONE Creator Jeff Smith!!". Ain't It Cool News. July 4, 2003. Retrieved July 27, 2017. (The relevant part of the interview is also quoted at the Boneville.com official website, here [1] Archived December 20, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.)
  7. ^ Gonzalez, Umberto (November 17, 2016). "Mark Osborne to Adapt Warner Bros' 'Bone' Comic". TheWrap. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  8. ^ Amidi, Amid (October 16, 2019). "Netflix To Produce 'Bone' Series". Cartoon Brew.
  9. ^ "Netflix Animation Erased: Executives Fired, Shows Canceled and Accusations of 'Staged Data' (Exclusive)". April 20, 2022. Retrieved April 20, 2022.
  10. ^ "From One Screen to Another". Los Angeles Times. February 15, 2002. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
  11. ^ "'Jimmy Neutron' Sequel Gets 'Thornberrys' Scribe". Killer Movies. June 20, 2002. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  12. ^ "Keith Alcorn on JIMMY NEUTRON and PLANET SHEEN". karereviews.net. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
  13. ^ "Gary Ross Makes Imaginary Friend". March 15, 2002. Retrieved January 21, 2022.
  14. ^ Dana Harris (March 14, 2002). "Larger Than Life a 'Friend' to Nick". Variety. Retrieved January 21, 2022.
  15. ^ Beck, Jerry (April 16, 2010). "Mighty Mouse on again at Paramount". Cartoon Brew. Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  16. ^ Milligan, Mercedes (April 11, 2019). "Paramount Taps 'Meg' Scribes for 'Mighty Mouse' Movie".
  17. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr (April 10, 2019). "Here They Come, To Save The Day: Jon & Erich Hoeber To Script 'Mighty Mouse' For Paramount Animation".
  18. ^ Hartman, Butch (February 9, 2018). "Why I Left Nickelodeon". Retrieved February 10, 2018 – via SoundCloud.
  19. ^ Hartman, Butch (February 8, 2018). "Why I Left Nickelodeon". Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved February 9, 2018 – via YouTube.
  20. ^ Spangler, Todd (October 17, 2017). "'Fairly OddParents' Creator Butch Hartman Developing Three Series With Startup Pocket.watch". Variety. Retrieved March 17, 2018.
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  23. ^ "Columbia, SPA Bringing Smurfs to the Big Screen". ComingSoon.net. CraveOnline. June 10, 2008. Archived from the original on July 30, 2010. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
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  25. ^ "The New Kid". Penny Arcade. October 29, 2010.
  26. ^ Kit, Borys (June 2, 2011). "Paramount Plots Next Animated Pic with Alien Comic Adaptation 'New Kid' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter.
  27. ^ pennyarcadeTV (November 30, 2016). The Wagers Of Sin - DLC Podcast Show, Season 7, Episode 19. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved December 5, 2016 – via YouTube.
  28. ^ Tim, Masters (November 2, 2011). "Tintin 2: Horowitz says story 'still under discussion'". BBC. Retrieved November 14, 2011.
  29. ^ "Steven Spielberg : "Peter Jackson va bientôt travailler sur la suite des Aventures de Tintin"". Premiere.fr. March 23, 2018.
  30. ^ "Tintin: Steven Spielberg says it's up to Sir Peter Jackson to revive the franchise". Stuff. March 24, 2018.
  31. ^ "Paramount Animation Taps 'Paperman's' John Kahrs to Direct 'Shedd' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. January 22, 2014. Retrieved May 6, 2022.
  32. ^ Komorowski, Thad (July 12, 2016), Interview: 25 Years Later, Directors Bob Camp and Bill Wray Remember "The Ren & Stimpy Show", archived from the original on September 16, 2021, retrieved August 12, 2016
  33. ^ Kricfalusi, John [@JohnKricfalusi1] (February 6, 2017). "not that I know of" (Tweet). Archived from the original on February 22, 2017. Retrieved February 9, 2017 – via Twitter.
  34. ^ Cans Without Labels – DVD, May 27, 2019, archived from the original on June 26, 2019, retrieved June 25, 2019
  35. ^ Ren & Stimpy – SpongeBob Movie Short (Animatic), Steven Vargas, June 23, 2019, retrieved June 25, 2019
  36. ^ Rigney, Todd (August 31, 2015). "Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Giant Monsters Attack Japan Still Alive at Paramount Animation". Dread Central. Retrieved May 7, 2022.
  37. ^ "{Exclusive} Eddie Murphy Developing Animated Film About The World's Most Dangerous Bull For Paramount". The Tracking Board. October 12, 2015. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
  38. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (October 15, 2015). "'The Signal' Scribe David Frigerio Sells Sci-Fi Pitch To Paramount Animation". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
  39. ^ Kroll, Justin (January 27, 2016). "Jared Hess to Direct 'NickToons' for Nickelodeon Films and Paramount". Variety. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
  40. ^ "INTERVIEW: Director Jared Hess Talks To Me About The Hilarious True Story Behind 'Masterminds'". Rama's Screen. September 25, 2016. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
  41. ^ "J.J. Abrams Spreads His Wings With Animated Comedy "The Flamingo Affair" At Paramount (EXCLUSIVE)". The Tracking Board. June 29, 2016. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
  42. ^ Donnelly, Matt (March 28, 2017). "Paramount's 'Amusement Park' Movie to Become Nickelodeon TV Show After Theatrical Release". The Wrap. Archived from the original on April 1, 2017. Retrieved April 1, 2017.
  43. ^ Wonder Park TV Series Pilot YouTube
  44. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (August 22, 2018). "Paramount, Weed Road Tap Patrick Osborne For 'Monument Valley' Mobile Game Movie". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 22, 2018. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
  45. ^ Donnelly, Matt (June 20, 2019). "Ron Howard to Direct First Animated Film as Imagine Sets Ambitious Feature Slate With Animal Logic (EXCLUSIVE)".
  46. ^ "'Top Gun: Maverick,' 'Mission: Impossible 7' Among Latest Paramount Delays". Variety. April 9, 2021. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
  47. ^ Grobar, Matt (May 16, 2022). "Ron Howard's First Animated Film 'The Shrinking Of Treehorn' Heading To Netflix". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved May 17, 2022.
  48. ^ "A new Spice Girls film is coming". The Independent. January 13, 2019. Archived from the original on May 24, 2022. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  49. ^ "'Spice Girls' Movie in the Works as Paramount Unveils Animation Slate (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. June 12, 2019. Retrieved June 14, 2019.
  50. ^ "The Spice Girls are getting an animated movie — and all five members are on board". www.cbsnews.com. June 12, 2019. Retrieved June 15, 2019.