Jeff Smith's Comic Series Bone Could Become Three Animated Films From WB

While many people are excited about all the developments around films from Marvel and DC, the comic book movies I'm interested in are a bit different. I'd love to see Dave McKean's Cages, yes. And I'm wildly curious about how Jeff Smith's massive fantasy epic Bone will play on the screen. Now Smith is saying the story could be told in a series of three films.

Last year WB optioned the Bone series, but we haven't heard much about a potential film since that deal was reported. Would we see a live action-CGI hybrid? An all-CGI animated film or, even better but a lot less likely, a hand-animated project that could pay homage to Smith's roots as a Disney animator and properly honor his incredible line work?

Comic Book Resources has a big report from Smith's appearance last weekend at the Alternative Press Expo (APE) where a question was asked about the status of the film. CBR reports:

Smith mentioned the deal he signed with Warner Bros. for a CGI cartoon, noting he was very happy with the progress so far. No release date has been set yet, but he said they'll probably end up making three films. [Discussion moderator Larry] Marder asked if it was a big decision to do a computer-generated cartoon instead of a hand drawn one. Smith noted he was a huge fan of hand-drawn animation, and had even tried to pull together a "Bone" cartoon with some friends he has in the animation business. "It was just too big, too expensive," he said. "I ended up just spending my time trying to get everyone to get along with everyone else."

So, CGI it is so far. That's for the best, really. Bone is set in such a specific, fully realized (and relatively mature) world that the disconnect between seeing animated versions of the Bone characters interacting with rela actors would probably be significant.