A Legendary '80s Director Nearly Made A Live-Action Peanuts Movie

Live-action film adaptations of comic strips aren't considered quite as sacrilegious as live-action remakes of animated movies, but it's close. 2025's "The Garfield Movie" may be more focused on serving up rampant product placement than capturing what made folks fall in love with the titular snarky, work-averse orange tabby created by Jim Davis in the first place, but at least the furry guy himself looks cartoonishly cuddly. The same can't be said for the Bill Murray-led live-action "Garfield" films from the 2000s, both of which also feel lackadaisical compared to the low-key mayhem and, at times, bordering-on-surreal vibe of the hand-drawn "Garfield" universe. There's a reason the "Garfield minus Garfield" edits work as well as they do.

(Look, I have more opinions about "Garfield," the "Calvin & Hobbes" comics, and stories about orange cats in general than you probably care to hear, but sometimes you have to get these things off your chest.)

How about "Peanuts" then? After all, the late Charles M. Schulz's cherished comic strip focuses more on its philosophizing kiddos than their mischievous animal companions, and it's already given rise to a pair of popular stage shows ("You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" and "Snoopy! The Musical"). With the right vision, a live-action "Peanuts" picture could feasibly tap into the melancholic dramedy and fanciful flights of Schulz's creation. At least, that was Warner Bros.' thinking in 1992 when, as Variety reported at the time, it hired none other than fabled 1980s comedy filmmaker John Hughes to write and produce a movie that would bring Charlie Brown and the gang into the real world. 

It ultimately didn't happen (perhaps due to a similar WB/Hughes venture, "Dennis the Menace," underperforming not long after that Variety article was published), and I'm personally of two minds on the matter.

1990 was a turning point for John Hughes. After a remarkable run as a writer/director in the '80s (one that included "The Breakfast Club," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," and "Planes, Trains and Automobiles"), he turned to writing full-time upon helming 1991's (slight but perfectly likable) "Curly Sue." 1990 also saw the release of the Hughes-penned "Home Alone," and its success seemingly came to haunt him. In fact, many of his later scripts heavily recycled elements of that film to increasingly hackneyed results (most notably, its weirdly menacing villains and violent slapstick humor).

Such was the case with "Dennis the Menace," the Hughes-written live-action comic strip film that actually did get made. Released by WB just under eight months after Variety's "Peanuts" scoop, the movie was a modest financial hit but was skewered by critics and only managed to spawn two direct-to-home-media sequels (which may be why the studio canned Hughes' "Peanuts" flick). It's also a film whose misbehaving namesake frequently makes strangely profound observations about life, as our own BJ Colangelo was amazed to discover during her "Dennis the Menace" rewatch. Was this Hughes' test run for writing "Peanuts"?

This is why I'm conflicted. In the worst-case scenario, a live-action "Peanuts" film written by '90s-era Hughes might've been over-the-top and off-putting. Alternatively, it could've altered his career trajectory once more, this time for the better. Variety claimed that he planned to mine decades of "Peanuts" comics for inspiration, "functioning 'much like an editor' in writing the movie." Assuming that's true, Hughes may've intended to tamp down his worst post-"Home Alone" tendencies and craft something truer to Charles Schulz's playful yet understated work. It's a what-if scenario that you can't help but ponder, much like Charlie Brown gently musing about the universe.