Paramount Animation News: 'Rumble' Delayed To 2022, Trevor Noah Making New Animated Movie
When you woke up this morning, I'm sure the first thing you said to yourself was: "What's new in the world of Paramount Animation?" Well, I heard your question, reader, and I'm here with some answers. First, Rumble, an animated flick that was supposed to open this May has now been moved to 2022. In addition to that, The Daily Show host Trevor Noah is set to make an animated feature with Paramount.
Rumble
Rumble, a Paramount Animation movie featuring the voice talents of Will Arnett, Terry Crews, Geraldine Viswanathan, Joe "Roman Reigns" Anoa'i, Tony Danza, Becky Lynch, Susan Kelechi Watson, Stephen A. Smith, Jimmy Tatro, and Ben Schwartz, was once dated for July 31, 2020. But that date changed to January 29, 2021. And then, as you might expect, it changed again – to May 14, 2021. Now, Paramount has decided to give it one more push – to February 18, 2022.
The pic is set in a "world where giant monsters and humans collide," and "the monsters are superstar athletes and compete in a popular professional wrestling global sport called Monster Wrestling. A young girl named Winnie seeks to follow in her father's footsteps as a manager by coaching a lovable underdog yet-inexperienced monster named Steve. Winnie plans to turn Steve into a champion so that he can go up against the reigning champion Tentacular."
I'm not entirely sure why Paramount decided to give up on a 2021 release date entirely for this thing. Are they concerned theaters won't be back up and running at all in 2021? Or do they not want to compete with an onslaught of delayed titles that will eventually be released? My guess is on the latter option. Paramount is also set to unveil their streaming service Paramount+, so it stands to reason they might have just dropped Rumble onto there. But they clearly want to stick with a theatrical model. At least for now.
Trevor Noah Animated Movie
In other Paramount Animation news, Variety is reporting that The Daily Show host Trevor Noah is set to make an animated movie for the studio. Noah will produce the film via his Day Zero Productions with Haroon Saleem, based on an original idea from Noah. What's it about? Well...we don't know yet. All we know is that the movie "is said to be timely, poignant, and comedic." Timely, poignant, and comedic? In this economy!? Jonathan Groff (Black-ish) and Jon Pollack (Modern Family) are set to write the script. And in case you were wondering, as I was for a moment – no, the Jonathan Groff mentioned above is not the same Jonathan Groff who played King George in Hamilton and starred in Mindhunter.
I'll confess that after Jon Stewart left The Daily Show, I more or less gave up on watching it. It's not that I don't like Noah, it's just that the show feels like it lost something with Stewart's departure. That said, every time I see a random clip from the show with Noah as the host, I like what Noah is doing, so I'm curious to see him branch out into non-Daily Show stuff.