Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

(Source: Sci-Fi Wire)

Philip Lord and Chris Miller (MTV's Clone High) plan to write and direct a CG animated film based on Judi Barnett's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, a picture book about food falling from the sky. The duo say they want to turn it into a family-friendly spoof of disaster movies such as Armageddon and Twister. Lord and Miller are developing it at the newly-formed Sony Pictures Animation.

"We both grew up with (Barnett's story)," said Lord. "It's my favorite kid's book. Chris' too."

He says Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs would be "a great disaster movie for kids...I think it's because those disaster movies are kind of silly, and they take themselves really seriously. And we felt like, it's sort of a silly idea for a movie in the first place. And giving it a little bit of a tongue-in-cheek comedy treatment felt like the way to go."

Sony put together a teaser for the film, which featured a giant pancake falling on the White House, corn on the cob rolling along the Great Wall of China and a spaghetti-and-meatballs tornado destroying a city.

"Pretty much every disaster movie you've ever seen, I think, will be referenced," says Miller.

"There's certainly a little bit of Twister in there," Lord added. "Independence Day. There's quite a bit of Armageddon. We cite Michael Bay as a huge influence."

"We're the only people in the world that cite Michael Bay as a huge influence," comments Miller.

Sony Pictures Animation will release Open Season on Sept. 29 and Surf's Up on June 8, 2007. In addition to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the studio is also developing a horror-themed family comedy, Hotel Transylvania.

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