In the two decades since the beginning of the comics boom – headed up by Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore’s Watchmen – called Hollywood’s attention to the funny-book industry, those creators who’ve gotten caught up in the movie and TV biz have mostly experienced development horror stories and few positive results. Moore himself became so disgusted that he’s removed his name from all Hollywood projects based on his work, and the Watchmen movie in particular has yet to be made.
Austinite and Over the Hedge co-creator Michael Fry, on the other hand, is all smiles about the whole thing, judging from a quick chat after a press screening last week. Sure, his comic strip, about a coterie of anthropomorphic animals, has taken 10 long years making it from the first whisperings of big-screen activity to this Friday’s actual premiere of DreamWorks’ feature film, but he was fairly certain all along the way that good things would come out of the wait.
Hollywood first expressed an interest in Over the Hedge in 1996, Fry recalls, when the fledgling strip still only appeared in a relative handful of newspapers (currently it’s approaching 200 nationwide). A simple e-mail inquiry quickly led to offers by DreamWorks, Fox, and Henson; it was Fox’s “over-the-top, can’t-refuse” offer – which included having Fry and partner T. Lewis writing the screenplay – that got his initial green light. DreamWorks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg didn’t take the rebuff personally, however – as Fry tells it, the big man personally assured him that “‘Those guys [Fox] will never make it, and when they don’t, I will.'”
Katzenberg proved as good as his word, leaving only the quality of the movie itself to keep a creator up nights. Despite disappointing trailers and questionable past credits for its writers, the final product is a treat; a fast-paced satire on consumerism contained within a kid-friendly plot about suburban development threatening to wipe out the homes of a group of peaceful forest creatures. Fry admits to being caught up somewhat in the industry machine at the moment – any hopes for an opening-weekend No. 1 at the box office, for instance, will likely be dashed by The Da Vinci Code – but when it comes down to it, he’s most pleased with the prospect of this film’s success in how it relates to his comic strip.
Over the Hedge opens in Austin on Friday, May 19. For a review and show times, see Film Listings.
This article appears in May 19 • 2006.