11/21/02 Director Attached To Garfield Feature

According to The Hollywood Reporter, director Peter Hewitt has been tapped to helm 20th Century Fox's live-action/CG big screen treatment of Garfield. Hewitt (The Borrowers, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey) will be working from a script crafted by Toy Story writers Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow. John Davis will produce through his Davis Ent.

Garfield first appeared as a comic strip in 1978 and was later animated for TV specials and a regular series, Garfield and Friends. International television rights to that series were recently acquired by Tremendous! Ent., which will begin production on a 25th anniversary TV special in January. It will also re-launch 121 half-hour episodes and 12 primetime specials from the Garfield library.

The upcoming feature will follow Warner Bros. Scooby-Doo model by converting a popular 2D character to 3D and compositing it with live-action actors and photography.