The live-action Rugrats movie is coming, whatever that means

The latest victim of IP resuscitation is the Rugrats, which is crazy because Rugrats was revived just three years ago as a CG animated series that has already been completely wiped from Paramount+. No matter; Hollywood can keep birthing Rugrats over and over again as long as there’s money to be made. Which brings us to today’s announcement that a live-action Rugrats is in development, per Deadline.

What does “live action Rugrats” mean, you may ask? It’s a good question, but there are no solid production details available to give you an answer. Will they go the Lion King route, where “live action” actually means an uncanny valley simulacrum of a real living creature? Or will this be a Look Who’s Talking situation, where the infants sort of lay around while adult actors narrate their telepathic dialogue? Real babies whose dialogue is dubbed over artificial moving mouths like Doctor Who‘s recent “Space Babies” episode? The possibilities are numerous and, if we may say so, largely horrifying to contemplate.  

What we do know about live action Rugrats so far is that Jason Moore has been tapped to direct with Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell writing the script. Moore is the director of the first Pitch Perfect movie and more recently Jennifer Lopez’s Shotgun Wedding. Meanwhile, Day and Seidell—best known as the Saturday Night Live writing duo behind sketches like “David S. Pumpkins” and Ryan Gosling’s recent “Beavis And Butt-Head”—are carving out a strange little niche for themselves in the family-friendly space. They previously penned the Disney+ Home Alone reboot Home Sweet Home Alone and at some point were attached to an Inspector Gadget reboot, so apparently these are the guys you call for nostalgia bait. We’ll see what they bring to the table, but they’ll be hard-pressed to top Rugrats In Paris.