Attempts to make a Where’s Waldo movie have been going on for the better part of a decade. The idea has been sitting in development hell for several years, but now it looks like they’ve finally picked Waldo out from the crowd. A pair of new producers have signed on the project, and you’ll never guess who they are.
According to The Tracking Board, Seth Rogen and his producing/writing/directing partner Evan Goldberg have signed on to bring Where’s Waldo to the big screen. Goldberg and Rogen’s Point Grey production company will run the whole show. Needless to say Where’s Waldo is an interesting addition to a production slate that includes Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising and the new Preacher series for AMC.
While the project does appear to be moving forward, it’s unknown if Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg will be working from scratch, or picking up where others left off. MGM has had the rights to Where’s Waldo since 2011. They brought on a screenwriter to help bring a live-action adaptation to life back then, but nothing went anywhere. Beyond the fact that the plan is still to go live-action, it’s not clear if they’ll be working from an existing script or find a new writer to start fresh. Of course, if the movie needs new writers, the two need only to look in the mirror to find a couple of accomplished screenwriters. At the moment Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are only on board to produce the film, but it’s very possible they could also write and/or direct as well if they have that inclination.
Of course, all of this begs the question, what does one make a Where’s Waldo movie about in the first place? The children’s book series that the film will be based on is little more than series of crowded images that challenge you to locate the stocking cap wearing Waldo amongst the throngs of humanity, though there was a short-lived animated series in teh 1990s. On the one hand, it can give the filmmakers a great deal of freedom to fill in the gaps with an interesting and compelling story. At the same time, all that open-endedness can have a tendency to cause people to fill the space with some fairly terrible stuff. You can take a simple board game and you can make Clue, or you can make Battleship. It’s anybody’s guess which direction this will go.
Does a Where’s Waldo movie intrigue or terrify you? How does the inclusion of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg impact that feeling? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
