Bone (lost production material of cancelled film adaptations of Jeff Smith comic series; 1998-2000; 2008-2016)

The Front Cover of Bone: The Complete Edition.

Status: Lost

Bone is a fantasy comic book series created by Jeff Smith and published by Cartoon Books that ran from 1991 to 2004 for 55 issues. It tells the story of the Bone Cousins (Fone, Phoney, and Smiley) who are ran out of Boneville and end up in The Valley. With the help of Thorn and her grandmother, Gran'ma Ben, the cousins try to get back to their home. All the while, they're caught up in trials and tribulations through the valley, and even a war. The series has become a beloved cult classic among readers, with many attempts having been made to adapt the series into film, however, none have been successful. Only a handful of material for either adaptation of the comic has surfaced.

Nickelodeon Movies/Paramount Pictures version (1998-2000)

In August 1998, Jeff Smith signed a deal with Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies to produce an animated adaptation of Bone. A first draft of the script was written a year later, with Smith stating that pre-production may start in 2000, with him to lead as director. In the summer of 2000, as reported by Corana Coming Attractions, it was to be traditionally animated by Character Builders (Smith's now defuncted animation studio) and with a tentative release set for 2002. However, while Nickelodeon and Paramount were both very high on producing it in meetings, they wouldn't return any phone calls from Smith afterwords, and had the choice to let the Bone film rights expire later that year, which would forshadow the eventual fate of the film. The story would've followed the Bone Cousins ending up in the valley, where they would meet Thorn and Grand'ma Ben. Smith pitched the story to be very simple, but with an open ending that could potentially lead to more sequels for the future.

However, Nickelodeon wanted to change the ending and make the film more kid-friendly. Most notably, they wanted the Bones to be played by children, and for Fone Bone to have "Magic Gloves". They also wanted to shift more focus on the character Thorn, and even debated focusing the movie on her instead. There were also talks of pop songs by NSYNC and Britney Spears to be featured in the films soundtrack, which was quickly turned down by Smith. The executive meddling caused Smith to walk out of the film, resulting in production being cancelled in August of 2000. But in a September 2000 interview with the Comics2Film website, Smith said even after the film's intial end the prior month, there was still a chance for it to be made, as he stated:

"I'm definitely not running away from it. In fact we're still talking. I think things are good. I'm not frustrated in any way. We're just taking a breather. I just had to hit the reset button."

By December 2002, in a IGN interview where he is asked 10 questions about himself, Smith said he sheleved the idea of an animated Bone at the time, seemingly killing any hope for the orignal film version to be produced.

Warner Bros. version (2008-2016)

Nearly eight years after the previous version was cancelled, it was revealed in March of 2008 that a new Bone film was in production. This time, it was to be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, with Dan Lin producing, and Smith coming on board as a executive producer. Animal Logic (known for their Oscar-winning film Happy Feet) and Lin Pictures were to produce, as it was later announced in 2009 that the film was instead going to become a CGI trilogy, with motion capture animation being provided by the former. The first film in the proposed trilogy would have been based on either the first three or four books with a potential PG-13 rating attached, and was to be written by Farscape writer Justin Monjo. A four minute animation demo reel was shown to Smith in summer 2011, who described it as:

"Fone Bone was falling in the water and going through cliffs and canyons. The dragon moved in from off camera in the shadows with smoke around him, all in 3-D. It was pretty mind-blowing."

In January 2012, Greek creator Patrick Sean Smith was brought on to write from working on a previous draft by Monjo, and P.J. Hogan signed on as the director with a projected release date in either 2013 or 2014. However, no updates on the for film came for nearly five years, and in November 2016, Mark Osborne (Kung Fu Panda) and Adam Kline, were revealed to direct and write the film trilogy, effectively replacing Smith and Hogan. There has been no further news on the project since, and with the announcement of a Bone animated series coming to Netflix, the project has more than likely been shelved.

Availability

Up until mid 2020, no material from either version of the film had surfaced. Although no production material for the Warner Bros. version of the film has been found, it was discovered on August 16th, 2020 by Reddit user Clean-Cupcakes on r/Bone that Paramount concept art was featured on a defunct animation website called Animated Movies, on their page about the Bone film. Though its initial legitimacy was questioned, fellow Reddit user Lokigere revealed further details, and was able to prove that the art was legitimate. The concept art was featured in a collection of novels for the series titled Bone Vernal Equinox Slipcase Edition, and also contained another piece of concept art for the film. A day later, the user uploaded both images, albeit in low quality.

On February 6th, 2021, Lost Media user Fun.Tendo was able to find a high quality version of the second image presented in the Bone Vernal Equinox Slipcase Edition, via using the Wayback Machine to search for a September 2000 Smith interview with Comics2Film mentioned in the Animated Movies page about the film. In the article, the previously unknown artist behind both images was revealed to be Neil Ross (a U.K. concept art designer that has worked on plenty of films, including Braveheart and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) and apparently both of the known concept art were shared to Comics2Film in 1999 from the Cartoon Books site (now known as the Bonevillie website). To this day, It's still unknown how much (if any) animation was done for the Paramount version of the film or if any more concept art exists. With Netflix now owning the adaptation rights to Bone, it's unlikely either adaptation of the film will ever see the light of day.

Gallery

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  The two known pieces of concept art for the Nickelodeon/Paramount Bone film in person.

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  Concept art of the Bone Cousins and Thorn walking through a forest.

BoneNightWoods.jpg | Concept art of the Rat Creatures at night, with Fone Bone watching in the background.

Videos

nickslimepodcast's video on the Nick version of the Bone movie.

Ash the Canadian's video on the Nickelodeon adaptation of the film.

Jay Wallfish's video on the Warner Bros. adaptation of the film.

External Links

• Animated Movies page on the Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movie Bone adaptation. Retrieved 18 Aug '20