The brilliantly deconstructionist The Family Circus—the comic strip that subverts the notion that comic strips should exist in strip form or be inherently comic—will become a live-action film franchise in the hands of Twentieth Century Fox, Narnia moralists Walden Media, and Jesus. Producer John Baldecchi reportedly spent two years pursuing the project, begging creator Bil Keane to let him use his long-running chronicles of the morbidly humorous misadventures of four hydrocephalic children whose abnormal accumulation of cranial fluid causes them to interpret everything an adult says incredibly literally, then repeat their misunderstandings to the laughter of a cruel world.
At least, we’re assuming that’s Bladecchi’s take on it, since he spent two years pursuing Family Circus instead of writing his own generic family comedy based on the idea that kids say things that are, if not the darnedest, pretty well darned; surely it’s not a deal based solely on brand recognition? Because we’re fairly certain most Family Circus fans now exist solely as grim-faced specters hovering over their grandchildren in the clouds, waging silent war for their souls against the itinerant demons Ida Know and Not Me.