'Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs' TV Series Now In Development

DHX Media, the company behind the Paddington film and in-development TV re-do of Inspector Gadget, is now working with Sony Animation to create a Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs TV series. The show will consist of 22-minute CG-animated episodes that follow at least the basic concept of the two films. But there's mention of this being a "re-imagined" version of the two-film series, so things might be changed for the TV incarnation. 

In a statement (via Deadline) DXH Media president and COO Steven DeNure said,

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs has a tremendous legacy as beloved children's books and a duo of highly popular feature films, showing how great ideas can succeed across media. We believe audiences both old and new are going to love this fiercely funny franchise re-imagined for the small screen.

What does "re-imagined for the small screen" mean? The first conclusion I'd draw is that this won't continue the story begun in the first film and continued in the second. It probably will not use the same voice cast (meaning no Bill Hader or Anna Faris in the lead roles) and could have a bunch of new characters. Phil Lord and Chris Miller invented and expanded quite a lot when they turned the original 30-page children's book into a movie, and this show could retain their basic approach while focusing on many other characters and/or elements of the story.

Edit: EW says "In addition to [Flint] Lockwood, expect many familiar faces from the film like new school reporter Sam Sparks, Flint's father Tim, Steve the Monkey, and sardine model Brent McHale."

The first development order is for 26 episodes, which will give DHX a lot of room to play. We'll report on casting and story revelations as they arrive.