UPDATE: Paramount Pictures have confirmed the very exciting news to Polygon. In a statement, a Paramount rep told Polygon "The project comes at a time when there is renewed interest in Nickelodeon's library of characters from the last 25 years."
NickToons will be a Nickelodeon-style take on the cartoon and live-action-blending film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?".
Producing will be Disruption Entertainment's Mary Parent, who in quick succession produced The Revenant, The SpongeBob Movie, Godzilla, Noah, Pacific Rim, the just-wrapped Monster Trucks and the currently shooting Kong: Skull Island, and and Cale Boyter.
The picture is based on an idea by Ali Mendes, who works for Parent at Disruption Entertainment. Mendes grew up loving the characters and hatched the idea to bring them together.
Nickelodeon has a vast Nickelodeon character library from the past 25 years that can be used to frame an original story the studio hopes will spark a franchise. Signature Nickelodeon characters that will be part of the film at this point are Rugrats, Ren & Stimpy, Rocko’s Modern Life, Aaahh! Real Monsters, and The Angry Beavers. It's currently unknown whether characters from Nickelodeon's anthology show KaBlam!, including unforgettable characters from Action League Now, Tiki Brothers and Prometheus And Bob, will be part of the movie.
Hess, who's repped by UTA and John Sloss, is still waiting patiently for Relativity to find its way out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and release Masterminds, the comedy he directed starring Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Owen Wilson, Zach Galifianakis and Kate McKinnon. The Hess-directed comedy was considered the best of the completed projects at Relativity, and the one Ryan Kavanaugh wouldn't let go of when his company's funds were frozen. It was pulled off the release calendar last year and rescheduled for a September 30 release. By then, Wiig and McKinnon will have come out in Ghostbusters, which might make the new release date fortuitous.
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