Underdog

Item Posted by: Gary Gray:
Director Frederik Du Chau looks to have been signed up by Disney and Spyglass to helm Underdog. The movie will be a CG/live action affair that will centre on a talking canine that has super powers.

Item Posted by: Loretta Francis:
Walt Disney Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment are finalizing a deal to bring the classic TV cartoon "Underdog" to the big screen as a live-action feature. Disney has great expectations for the property as a possible franchise for its Walt Disney Pictures label. Producers are aiming to start preparing in November for a shoot beginning in January in Canada. The tongue-in-cheek "Underdog" series was created by Buck Biggers and Chet Stover and debuted in 1964 on NBC and ran until 1973. The character was an unlikely superhero: a beagle who sheds his milquetoast identity of Shoeshine Boy to become a caped superdog who speaks in rhymed couplets. In the feature script, a diminutive hound named Shoeshine gets superpowers after a lab accident. When he's adopted by a 12-year-old boy, the two form a bond around the shared knowledge that Shoeshine is really Underdog. The characters of mad scientist Simon Barsinister and Underdog's love interest Sweet Polly Purebred are expected to be included in the movie. A real dog will be used for the title character, and CGI enhancements will be added. Joe Piscatella and Craig A. Williams wrote the script.