A new Garfield movie is in the works. It’s just been announced that Chris Pratt will provide the voice of the famous orange cat in an all-new animated movie which is set for a worldwide release by Sony Pictures. Oscar-nominated writer David Reynolds (Finding Nemo) wrote the script and Mark Dindal (Chicken Little) is on board to direct, which reunites the two after they previously worked on The Emperor’s New Groove.
Garfield creator Jim Davis will executive produce the new movie alongside Bridget McMeel of Amuse and Craig Sost. John Cohen and Steven P. Wegner are producing with Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson of Alcon Entertainment, and DNEG’s Namit Malhotra and Tom Jacob. DNEG Animation (Ron’s Gone Wrong) is animating and producing the feature.
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Created by Jim Davis, Garfield began as a comic strip in the 1970s and has become the world’s most widely syndicated comic strip. It follows the life of socially awkward cartoonist Jon Arbuckle, his lasagna-loving cat Garfield, and dimwitted dog Odie. The titular feline ventured into animation with a series of television specials and the hit cartoon series Garfield and Friends in the 1980s. There have been other animated adaptations and it’s been announced that Nickelodeon is also developing another animated Garfield series.
Garfield did not fare quite as well when he tried his hand at live-action movies. In 2004, Bill Murray infamously voiced the cat in Garfield: The Movie, which followed a CG-animated version of Garfield in a live-action setting. While the critics weren’t kind to the movie at all, it performed well enough at the box office to bring about a sequel with Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties releasing in 2006. Bill Murray has been open about his disdain for these movies, even joking about them in both of his Zombieland movie cameos.
Chris Pratt is best known for his live-action roles, dating back to his time on the comedy series Parks and Recreation. He has since become a bona fide movie star after joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Star-Lord in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy series, a role he will reprise in the upcoming third installment. Pratt also stars in the Jurassic World movies and will similarly be seen again in the sequel Dominion and was recently seen in the hit Amazon movie The Tomorrow War.
Voiceover work is not new to Pratt, however, as he’s lent his voice to the Lego Movie films along with the Pixar movie Onward. It was recently announced that he will lead the cast of an animated Super Mario Bros. movie as the voice of Mario, a role that has generated a mixed response from fans. Pratt released an Instagram video online at the time speaking about how surreal it was for him to take on that role as he had memories of playing the original arcade game with stolen quarters.
A release date hasn’t been set for the new animated Garfield movie at this time. No other names beyond Chris Pratt as Garfield have been announced for the voice cast, but don’t count on Bill Murray coming back for a voice cameo. This news comes to us from The Hollywood Reporter.
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