Call it Marmaduke and Me. Owen Wilson to play the voice of everyone’s favorite Great Dane. Chicks already think his nose has character, so they might as well see Wilson’s snout as a dog. The live-action/CG adaptation of the comic strip comes from the guys at Fox who have given us Garfield and Alvin and the Chipmunks, so they might as well pay tribute (or is it denigrate?) another comic strip/cartoon property. The story will see “Marmaduke navigate a volatile Mutts vs. Pedigrees turf war, woo the purebred of his dreams and overcome a fall from grace.” Say what? Oh yes, Tim Rasmussen and Vince Di Meglio of License to Wed are the screenwriters behind this one. And the man to helm it: Tom Dey, of Shanghai Noon and Failure to Launch previously.

JAAFL: Just Another Animated Family Film with “name” actors voicing the animals. Joining Wilson, the cast includes Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies, Judy Greer, and William H. Macy as the humans. And the voices of the dogs: Fergie, Emma Stone, George Lopez, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Steve Coogan, Damon Wayans, and Marlon Wayans.

This will be Wilson’s third foray into the voice-acting realm, after Pixar’s Cars and the upcoming Fantastic Mr. Fox, the second of which is another Fox property.

What next, a big-screen version of the Berenstain Bears? (Meanwhile: reads that Shawn Levy is making a Berenstain Bears movie. Slaps head.) Come on, studios. I know you love these movies to be cash cows, but what’s with the need to have it be a mash-up of live action and CG? And more to the point, what’s with the mediocrity in the adaptations. It can’t be that difficult to tap into the essence of what made the comic strips and cartoons so fun to begin with. Families can expect this one in June 2010.

Source: THR

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