Mouse Guard movie adaptation officially ‘dead’

Filmmaker Wes Ball has been forced to abandon plans for his adaptation of graphic novel series Mouse Guard after failing to find a new home for the movie.
The director had recruited Idris Elba, Andy Serkis, and Thomas Brodie-Sangster to star in the live-action fantasy, which was due to be set in medieval times and follow a brotherhood of mice.
However, just two weeks before it was due to go into production in April (19), the big screen project was abruptly halted by studio bosses at Disney, who ultimately decided to scrap the 21st Century Fox film following the company’s acquisition.
The rights were handed back to Ball and his producers, including War for the Planet of the Apes filmmaker Matt Reeves, allowing them to shop the movie to other buyers, but on Tuesday (25Jun19), it was revealed their hopes to revive Mouse Guard elsewhere had officially been dashed.
“Yes sadly, its (sic) true. Our #mouseguard movie is dead,” Ball posted on Twitter. “Seems it’s too big a risk. It’s a d**n shame really. We had something special.
“To my hella (sic) talented cast/crew: I’m sorry I couldn’t push this one through. The past year with you all has been a blast. May the Guard prevail!”
To mark the sad news, Ball and concept artist Derek Zabrocki shared footage from their demo reel online, as well as information and images explaining how they had planned to bring the characters to life onscreen with the help of motion-capture technology.
Mouse Guard, based on David Petersen Eisner’s comics, reportedly had a budget of $170 million (£134 million) before it was dumped by Disney chiefs.