Jeff Smith's Bone to become a movie

The director of Kung Fu Panda and The Little Prince will try his hand at adapting Jeff Smith's Bone to the screen.

From the 'what took them so long?' department, Jeff Smith's epic fantasy comic Bone is finally getting the big screen treatment courtesy of Warner Bros. Mark Osborne (Kung Fu Panda, The Little Prince) will direct, and he'll co-write the script with Adam Kline. There had been rumblings that this was in development before (with director PJ Hogan), but this sounds like it has a shot to actually happen now.

Jeff Smith's Bone is kind of tough to describe here, but it's probably the finest all-ages comic book story of my lifetime. Smith wrote and drew the story, which is about these bizarre, cartoony Bone cousins who leave their home of Boneville and end up on an adventure that spans, well, over a thousand pages of comics. The series reached its conclusion in 2004, and as brilliiant as it is on the page, it's so ripe for animation that it staggers me that it's taken 13 years for this to happen.

“Bone is very special and unconventional because it blends elements together that you don’t necessarily expect — soft, little comic characters and epic high stakes fantasy adventure," Mark Osborne told The Hollywood Reporter. "To carry this into the cinematic realm presents both an opportunity to represent what readers of all ages have loved about the series, while pushing animated storytelling into exciting and different areas."

He's right. Don't be fooled by the cuddly look of Bone, because this story has a lot more to offer. If this is a success, don't be surprised if it ends up as a trilogy, as there's plenty of material there.

Mere months after publishing the final installment of the long-running fantasy saga Bone, Smith collects all 13 years' worth of it in a single, massive volume. As many comics fans know, the series chronicles the adventures of the Bone cousins--plucky Fone Bone, scheming Phony Bone, and easygoing Smiley Bone-- who leave their home of Boneville and are swept up in a Tolkienesque epic of royalty, dragons, and unspeakable evil forces out to conquer humankind. The compilation makes it evident how fully formed Smith's vision was from the very beginning--although the early chapters emphasized comedy, as do the final pages, the tale quickly found its dramatic bearings. His remarkably accomplished drawing style, in the manner of such comics masters as Walt Kelly and Carl Barks, was fully formed from the start, too. Libraries that have missed out on individual Bone series titles should seize this opportunity to make up for the fact, and those who have collected the series all along will do well to acquire the collected edition to supplement or supplant those doubtless well-worn volumes.

“BONE combines the humor and look of early Disney movies with the scope of the Lord of the Rings cycle. While children will read BONE for its breathless adventure and sight gags, older kids and adults will appreciate the themes of blind fanaticism and corrupting power.” - Time Magazine.

“BONE is storytelling at its best, full of endearing, flawed characters whose adventures run the gamut from hilarious whimsy to thrilling drama. Along the way, Smith’s musings… take on a greater relevance than you’d ever expect. Grade: A.” - Entertainment Weekly.

"Jeff Smith can pace a joke better than almost anyone in comics; his dialogue is delightful—so are all his people, not to mention his animals, his villains, and even his bugs." - Neil Gaiman.

"I love BONE! BONE is great!” - Matt Groening.

If Lord of the Rings were much funnier and pervaded with humor, it would be very much like Bone. Not that Bone isn't a serious work, because it is in every way - It's probably one of the comic book masterpieces of our time. Only that the story sometimes twists and turns on laugh out loud plot devices. Many of the characters are funny (Phoney Bone, the stupid stupid rat creatures, Smiley Bone, Bartelby, Gran'ma) but also have a downright serious side (Gran'ma has one VERY serious side; don't mess with her and definitely don't mess with her cows). The story itself is even funny in ways, but it amazingly maintains tension with some horror and shock mixed in. It's adventure, comedy, horror, and fantasy wrapped in a shell of great comic artwork.  Hidden beneath the adventures, jokes, and great artwork also lies some social commentary. When Phoney Bone convinces the townsfolk that dragons are an immediate threat to their safety and, since he's a dragonslayer, they should give him absolute control over the town, this hits almost a little too close to home. Phoney represents greed on steroids. Other innocents get pulled into his plans for money and power (he doesn't seem too concerned with glory or the well being of society in general). Nonetheless, the entire story turns on Phoney's schemes, and they play a vital role in the plot.  Other highlights include: the Great Cow Races; Fone Bone's infatuation with Thorn; Ted the Bug (what an amazing character); the two stupid rat creature's travails with Kingdok (one of them loves quiche); the slow uncovering of Gran'ma and Thorn's true identities; Smiley Bone's pet rat creature; Fone Bone's run ins with The Great Red Dragon; the Giant Bees ("Gimmee dat Cigar!"); Phoney Bone's first very creepy run in with The Hooded One. There's plenty more. These some 1300 pages are crammed with highlights.  Bone was originally released in numerous comic books (from 1991 to 2004) which were then collected into 9 larger books, and now all nine books are compiled into this one chunky volume. This book is slightly smaller in physical size than the other books, so some of the extreme detail of the art is lost (but most people won't care). Nonetheless, here's the entire story in one big volume for one much smaller price. It's a quick and tumultuous read, and represents ten years very well spent.

Netflix To Produce ‘Bone’ Series

Netflix announced this morning that it has secured rights to the independent fantasy comic book series, Bone, with plans to develop an animated kids series.

“I’ve waited a long time for this,” said Bone creator Jeff Smith. “Netflix is the perfect home for Bone. Fans of the books know that the story develops chapter by chapter and book by book. An animated series is exactly the way to do this! The team at Netflix understands Bone and is committed to doing something special.”

Bone, originally serialized in 55 issues from 1991 to 2004, tells the story of the three Bone cousins who end up in a fantastic valley that they must set free from the Lord of the Locusts. Smith, an animator himself who co-founded the Ohio studio Character Builders, was influenced in the creation of Bone by his appreciation of classic cartoonists and comic book artists like Carl Barks, Walt Kelly, and George Herriman.

Dating back to the nineties, various studios have attempted to translate Bone into animation. Nickelodeon was among the earliest companies to become involved, and wanted to create a Bone animated feature. The deal fell apart over a differing creative vision between the studio and creator. Smith recounted in an interview how Nickelodeon tried to change the tone of the film by suggesting the addition of pop songs by Britney Spears and Nsync:

Nickelodeon tried to turn "Bone" into an animated feature in the 1990s, but the deal fell apart when creator Jeff Smith refused to add pop songs by Britney Spears and NSYNC. He explains what happened below:

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DuPont: Any truth that they wanted a Britney Spears-style pop song?

Smith: No, they didn't want a Britney Spears-style pop song - they wanted a Britney Spears song in the film.  And I like Britney Spears; I like pop culture; I like Madonna and Michael Jackson as much as anybody else - but I had a very different kind fo film that I was trying to make.

And in the late nineties, I was really adamant that there would be no songs in the movie - because all animated feature films seem to have these awful formulaic songs.  I think that's a law somewhere - "Animated film for kids?  Put some crappy songs in it!"

Like when we pitched Warner Bros. while we were in Annecy.  They took us out on a boat and were really wooing us - until I got to the point where I said, "I need it in writing that there will be no songs."  And it was pretty much, "Swim back to shore."  [laughs]  That was it.  That was the end.

But Nickelodeon did agree to no songs.  In writing.  So this pop-song thing was probably the turning point in the whole affair for me; this was about a year-and-a-half in.  I mean, we had a great time with Nickelodeon - they were a lot of fun, the actual executives that we worked with.  I really liked them.  We would go to New York, where Viacom is, or we would go to Paramount, and we always had a wonderful time.  But one day after lunch we sat down...and the executive there turned to me and said, "Okay.  We can get twelve million dollars right now if we put a pop song in the movie.  So, Jeff - do you see somewhere in the body of the film where we could put a Britney Spears or an NSYNC song?"

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Most recently, a trilogy of films was being developed by Mark Osborne for Warner Bros. Smith has previously stated a preference for a hand-drawn version of Bone rather than a cg translation, and with the project being set up as a series at Netflix, that seems like a distinct possibility now. (Update: Smith has confirmed on Twitter that the series will be made in 2d.)

Bone became a mainstream hit after its publication ended, when Scholastic selected it as the launch title for its kids-and-teens graphic novel imprint, Graphix. Since then, the comic has sold over 8 million copies in North America alone, and has now been translated into 30 languages worldwide.

Bone creator Jeff Smith got his ‘dream team’ for Netflix animated series

The inimitable comics series is still on its way

Netflix’s Bone animated series is still in the writing process, according to Jeff Smith, but he can say one thing for certain: The creative team behind it is exactly who he wanted.

Polygon sat down with Smith for a long interview on the 30th anniversary of the first self-published issue of Bone (stay tuned for everything we talked about next week), but the topic of the Bone animated series naturally arose. The Netflix show was announced in October of 2019, but there hasn’t been much news since.

Smith says that preproduction was delayed along with much of the entertainment industry’s productions in 2020, but that, ironically, that delay yielded unexpected benefits.

“There were a couple of people that worked on some shows that I [asked about],” Smith recalled, “because I watched a bunch of Cartoon Network shows and some Netflix shows. Is this person around? Can we get this person? What’s this guy doing now? Or what’s she doing? And thanks to the pandemic, I was able to get everybody I wanted.

“I say thanks because there were people that were in contract, but we were delayed by like, eight or nine months because of the pandemic; [by that time] the contracts were up, and I got everybody I wanted. I don’t want to really say who they are, because I don’t want to steal Netflix’s thunder but, yes. I got my dream team of animation people, and I’m pretty excited about it so far.”

Bone first hit shelves in July 1991, and concluded its genre blending comedy/horror/high fantasy/all-ages adventure epic in 2004. The series exploded into new popularity after it was picked up for reprinting in graphic novel format by Scholastic Books, and a new generation of kids discovered the story of Phone Bone and the lost princess Thorn saving the Valley from the return of the Lord of the Locusts. Stay tuned for Polygon’s full interview with Smith, coming soon.All items shipped in rigid cardboard!  Please be sure to check my other listings- only $2 more in shipping per extra item!  !