This is not Bedrock Studios co-founder Cary Granat.
If the name Bedrock Studios doesn’t sound familiar, you might think it’s because you haven’t watched “The Flintstones” lately … especially since the new production company was co-founded by Cary Granat—not the Hollyrock star, the former CEO of Walden Media—and Ed Stones, er, Jones of Industrial Light & Magic.
Like Walden, Bedrock Studios aims at family audiences. Their first project, an animated buddy film bravely named Turkeys, stars Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson; their sophomore project is an eye-popper: In the Beginning, a 3D live-action adaptation of the creation story of Genesis. Granat is a Christian, and I have to admit I’m curious where this will go.
Bedrock is also developing a few Waldenesque projects based on award-winning children’s books, including the Newbery Award winners A Wrinkle in Time and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (the latter of which was previously adapted, or misadapted, in the 1980s by animator Don Bluth).
Jeffrey Overstreet of Looking Closer has his eye on a number of these projects … and he isn’t happy about what he sees. For one thing, he’s concerned about Mrs. Frisby’s good name:
The hero of Robert C. O’Brien’s classic children’s novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH never gets any credit. When Don Bluth’s extravagant animated adaptation hit theaters, her name had been dropped from the title. Now it was just The Secret of NIMH.
But that’s not all. In the movie, her name had been changed to Mrs. Brisbie!
Why? According to Wikipedia, the name was changed “to avoid potential objections from the makers of the frisbee, Wham-O.” Huh. Really? It’s spelled differently in the book. And the book is already published and beloved!
Now, word arrives that Bedrock Studios is working on an adaptation of the same book. But they’ve chewed off Mrs. Frisby’s name! If the article is accurate, the movie will be called Rats of NIMH … Is it uncool to have “Mrs.” in the title? Not sexy enough?
(EDIT:
But Jeffrey’s real concerns come out in a second post on Bedrock’s other projects:
If Bedrock didn’t have such direct ties to Walden, the company that has made a mess of Narnia and other great children’s books, I wouldn’t be so worried.
But I love [all] of these stories. If they must be made into movies (or in the case of Kiki, into another movie), I’d like them to be in the hands of patient, thoughtful artists, not hasty crowdpleasers who fail to understand why these stories shine.
All of this just makes me increasingly grateful for the folks at Pixar, and for folks like Spike Jonze (Where the Wild Things Are) and Henry Selick (Coraline). And Miyazaki, of course. Artists who make movies that will last. …
The Narnia films should have been movies like those. And the stories that Bedrock is preparing to film deserve to be glorious movies as well.
I’ll try to be hopeful. But it isn’t going to be easy.
That about nails it, I think.
Positive sign: Turkeys is slated to be directed by animator Ash Brannon, who co-directed the classic Toy Story 2 and directed the oddly winsome Surf’s Up. Less positive sign: The screenplay is by John J. Strauss, whose previous writing credits include a pair of Santa Clause sequels and The Lizzie McGuire Movie, as well as, um, a story credit on There’s Something About Mary.
It would be nice if Turkeys were only the name of that first flick.
CORRECTION: A misleading sentence in the original version of this post, implying that upcoming adaptations of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and Kiki’s Delivery Service being written by A Wrinkle in Time screenwriter Jeff Stockwell were also Bedrock Studios productions, has been deleted. Also, the suggestion that Bedrock’s new adaptation of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH would be retitled Rats of NIMH seems to be unwarranted. I regret the errors.
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I have to admit it’s hard to feel anything but trepidation here. There’s no way a “Kiki’s Delivery Service” remake in the hands of anyone but Miyazaki can’t suck. I mean, I still can’t believe that anyone would put “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and “remake” together in the same sentence… it’s akin to heresy!
Instead of “Bedrock Studios” they should really at least be honest about their approach to the classics and name their company “Scrappy-Doo Studios”.
Strictly speaking, if the trade reports are to be believed, Kiki’s Delivery Service won’t be a remake of Miyazaki’s film but a brand-new adaptation of the book on which Miyazaki’s film was based. Given the liberties that Studio Ghibli has reportedly taken with its other adaptations (e.g. the Earthsea series, Howl’s Moving Castle), it would not surprise me if there were plenty of room for this new adaptation to be its own thing.
Peter, thanks for the clarification. I still can’t believe that his name is Cary Granat and he founded Bedrock Studios. He has to have on that on purpose, right? Right?
Definitely—thanks for the clarification! I’m not familiar with the book on which “Kiki” is based, either, but if Miyazaki’s film was an adaptation the way his “Ponyo” was an adapation, then there’s probably lots of ground to be covered yet with the source material.
Sir,
While I enjoy your columns normally, I must comment that your information is very incorrect. Bedrock is involved in In The Beginning and Turkeys. They have nothing to do with Kikis Delivery Service. They have nothing to do with Edward Tulane. Those are both being produced by other companies. I think a bit of fact checking on your part is called for. Also, the company press release called it very clearly Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. Perhaps you should not be as hasty as you are in taking information from other web sites.
You have left out Walden’s project Amazing Grace, The Question of God, Charlotte’s Web and Granat’s involvement with other kids classics like Babe.
On behalf of your fans (of which I am one), please make an effort to factually be correct.
Ah, right. The reason Kiki and Edward Tulane came up is because they are both being written by Jeff Stockwell, who is also writing the script for A Wrinkle in Time. However, as you say, Stockwell is writing those films for other studios and not for Bedrock.
Speaking of fact-checking, I can’t resist pointing out that Amazing Grace was technically produced by Bristol Bay, not by Walden. :)
Actually the project Amazing Grace was fully produced by Walden. It was supervised by Walden’s production team, under Granat, but released by Bristol Bay. Walden, according to their statements at the time, did not want to confuse their main family audience Brand with a piece on Wilberforce. But it was the core Walden team running point from top to bottom. Another interesting point is that the director of Amazing Grace then became the director of Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Same with the fantastic PBS production Walden produced “The Question of God.” Another interesting faith piece that this site has never mentioned that Walden produced and was lauded for by many other faith sites was “I am David” which co-starred Jim Caveziel.
Mr. Rillins: Thanks for the fact checking. I’m suitably chastened, and have removed the offending sentence mentioning Edward Tulane and Kiki’s Delivery Service. I have also added a correction clarifying that point and the Mrs. Frisby title issue. (FWIW, I think you might be being a little hard on me, considering your objections boil down to one sentence from my post (which wasn’t technically incorrect, only misleading in context) and a quotation from another blog ... but the correction is well taken and I appreciate it.)
I’m not sure why you call out the Walden projects not mentioned here, since the subject is Bedrock and not Walden. The Walden projects mentioned here, all adaptations of children’s books, may be considered possible precedents for Mrs. Frisby. Amazing Grace and The Question of God (both of which I covered positively) are not children’s book adaptations. I’m only lukewarm about Walden’s Charlotte’s Web and I Am David. (Incidentally while it appears to be true that my I Am David capsule is not currently available online at NCRegister.com, I believe I did write it up as a DVD Pick for the print edition. If so, it should be online here, though there are cracks that things fall into.)
No one would be happier than I if the new Mrs. Frisby were anything close to the achievement of Babe, one of the greatest family films ever made. I’m also a big advocate of Holes (which, coincidentally, my kids and I put on just last night).
You need to check another “fact”. Despite his movie selections, Mr. Granat is as Catholic as I am white.
Where did I say Granat was Catholic?
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