Shane Acker Will Animate BEASTS OF BURDEN

In what sounds like a great match of filmmaker and material, Shane Acker (9) will adapt comic book series Beasts of Burden into an animated feature.

Reel FX, a design, visual-effects and animation studio based in Dallas, Texas, is backing the project. Founded in 1993, they've done a lot of very good work, and have recently moved into feature film production with The Book of Life (Guillermo del Toro producing) and Turkeys (voice cast led by Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson). Both of those titles are due in theaters late in 2014; the former will be distributed by Fox Animation and the latter by Relativity Media.

Acker came to our attention with his short film 9; ScreenAnarchy's Todd Brown called it "a hugely distinctive post apocalyptic piece of animation." Acker turned that into a feature film in 2009. (His official site showcases much more of his work.)

The project has not been officially titled. Darren Lemke (Turbo, Shrek Forever After) is writing the screenplay, based on the characters created by Evan Dorkin (writer) and Jill Thompson (artist). They are (mostly) dogs, living in the small town of Burden HIll, who investigate paranormal activity in order to protect the humans.

I am a proud owner of the wonderful, incredibly well-done 4-issue mini-series, published in 2009; the characters got their start in stories that appeared in various Dark Horse anthologies, and made later appearances in anthologies that were collected in a single book. The stories are strong, the characters are well-delineated, and Thompson's watercolor artwork is superb.

It's great source material, and Acker and Lemke certainly sound like the right people to adapt it.