After leading the box office the last two weeks with Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, Universal Pictures, Illumination Entertainment’s Chris Meledandri, and Audrey Geisel will tap the Dr. Seuss library for one more classic title, and this one is a surprise. They will start creating a 3D CG-animated feature depending on The Cat in the Hat. Rob Lieber has just been established to write the script. Meledandri will produce and Geisel will be executive producer.
In addition to Green Eggs And Ham and How The Grinch Stole Christmas!, The Cat In the Hat is probably the most well-known tale created by Theodor Dr. Seuss Geisel. The surprise arrives from the fact that Universal switched it into a live action movie in 2003. That movie made $101 million domestic and $133 million around the world, it cost about $109 million to make and was viewed as a big failure.
While a live action Grinch was a big hit for Universal, Meledandri and
Mrs. Geisel think that the Cat has more than one life on the big screen.
It is a very popular journey in Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme
park, a ride that was always determined by Dr. Seuss’s original
pictures. The feeling among Meledranadi, Mrs. Geisel, and Universal
Films chairman Adam Fogelson and co-chairman Donna Langley is that
Seuss’s works connect better in animation, driving Universal’s choice to
make this the next project.
