'Corduroy' Movie In The Works At CBS Films
With Paddington hitting the big screen not too long ago, and a sequel on the way, it's time for another beloved bear from literature to get the feature film treatment.
Corduroy is one of the most renowned children's books of all time, having been named the New York Public Library's 100 Great Children's Books From the Last 100 Years and Parents Magazine's All-Time Best Books for Children. Now Don Freeman's book about a department store teddy bear will star in his own movie.
Find out more about the Corduroy movie after the jump.
Corduroy is a simple story spanning just 32 pages, complete with some lovely illustrations, about a teddy bear who adventures around a department store after a woman refuses to buy him for her daughter because he's missing a button on his green corduroy overalls. On his journey around the store, he rides an escalator upstairs and finds a bunch of beds. Thinking one of the mattress buttons is his own, he attempts to pull it off, but ends up falling off the bed, knocking over a lamp, and getting discovered by a security guard.
The security guard takes the bear back to his shelf, still missing a button. But the next morning, the little girl from the previous day comes back with her own piggy bank money and buys the bear herself. Upon taking him home, she puts a new button on his overalls, and the two live happily ever after.
Like I said, it's a simple story. But it's easy to see how this could be expanded to fill a feature length movie. Corduroy could cleary do much more around the department store than just discover some beds. There are plenty of other things that have buttons which he could learn about and potentially create some messes in the store. There might even be room for other toys to come to life in the movie as well.
However, at this time it's hard to tell just what will be done with the narrative. It's early days on the project since Variety reports CBS Films has only just started development. The studio doesn't even have a writer attached to script the adaptation yet, though they have brought on Ride Along and Fantastic Four director Tim Story to be at the helm of the movie. Here's hoping he doesn't get Kevin Hart to be the voice of Corduroy, because I'm not sure I could handle that.
When I was in elementary school, we had to write our own adventure for Corduroy to go on, and since Jurassic Park had just come out, that's where I decided to send the toy bear. He definitely saw someone get eaten in that story, and I wouldn't mind seeing that happen in Corduroy's movie. It's a shame this movie isn't at Universal instead, otherwise it would be totally feasible, right?