Director Kelly Asbury (
Shrek 2) to write and direct
Imaginary Children, a live-action/CGI fantasy adventure about a cartoonist whose creations inhabit his house and cause an estrangement from his son, who can't measure up to them, according to Variety.
"The inspiration came when Charles Schultz announced he was retiring to spend time with his family and died right after," producer Richard Lewis said. "I'd always thought of his family as the Peanuts gang, and recalled that Candice Bergen practically grew up with a wooden puppet for a brother because her father, Edgar, spent so much time on his act that he had little for his child. Here, the animated characters live in the house with the father and a son who's completely turned off to his dad."
"I wanted the chance to develop from scratch and to be able to come to a studio with a fully fleshed out project and say, 'Do you want to make this,' instead of 'Do you like this movie idea?,' " Lewis said. "It's a truly independent structure where studios will be critical participants, but primarily for marketing and distribution."