Opus (partially found production materials and tests for cancelled animated film; 2001-2007)

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Original title treatment.

Status: Partially Found

Opus (also known at one point as Opus: The Last Christmas) was a proposed animated feature based on the character from the comic strip Bloom County, and its subsequent follow-ups Outland and Opus, by Berkeley Breathed. Originally set to be produced through Miramax's Dimension Films sub-label, the project moved when Bob and Harvey Weinstein separated from Miramax in October 2005 to form The Weinstein Company. In development as early as 2001, the film was ultimately put in turnaround by 2007 due to creative disagreements between creator Berkeley Breathed and the Weinsteins.

History

In December 2001, Storyopolis, a production company with a working relationship with cartoonist Berkeley Breathed, sold the film rights to his character Opus the Penguin to Dimension Films, a sub-label of Miramax, as part of a production deal with the studio.^[1] At that time, Breathed was attached to write and direct the project. In preparation of the movie, Breathed redesigned Opus' eyes by separating them to make them more workable in computer animated form; Breathed would draw Opus like this in all further appearances thereon, up to this day.^[2]

WildBrain

On September 29, 2004, Miramax struck a deal with the San Francisco-based animation studio WildBrain to produce computer-animated films. It was also announced that Opus would be the first collaboration between the two companies. WildBrain would have jointly co-own and finance the film with Miramax, with the latter releasing the film through the Dimension Films label, supposedly through its Disney distribution pipeline. Craig Mazin was also announced to be the screenwriter for the film.^[3] WildBrain co-founder Jeff Fino would later reveal that this Opus movie would be a stand-alone film based on the character, but not a direct adaptation of the Bloom County comic strip.^[4]

Weinstein Company/Tuxedo Films (The Last Christmas)

In March 2005, Miramax founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein split from the studio and formed The Weinstein Company. They effectively ended their partnership with WildBrain soon after, and brought the Opus project with them. Once their transition was complete, the Weinsteins rebooted the film in 2006, and set up a production studio in Los Angeles known as Tuxedo Films. This incarnation of the film was a holiday-themed outing known as Opus: The Last Christmas, and would be given a release date of December 19, 2008.^[5] Timothy Björklund (the director of Disney's Teacher's Pet) served as this version's director, and Reel FX was also rumored to have participated in this production. The plot of this version involved Opus getting stranded on an island, and somehow finding the North Pole and Santa's workshop. He is then tricked by Krampus into putting a pole that allows him to take control of the North Pole. Opus then sets off on a journey in order to stop Krampus and save Christmas.

Cancelation

After several months of development, the filmmakers of The Last Christmas struggled to work with the existing treatment available to them. Around November 2006, Berkeley Breathed stepped in, and wrote a brand new treatment for an Opus movie, which was supposedly enjoyed more by the production crew.^[6] However, tensions between Breathed and the Weinsteins began to rise more and more.

Eventually, it reached a breaking point when the Weinsteins suggested to Breathed that Opus should not speak to humans:

"It finally ended when I received a memo from Bob Weinstein ordering the script rewritten so that Opus didn't speak. 'A talking penguin would confuse the audience' was the explanation."^[7]

Soon after, Berkeley Breathed decided to back out of the development of the movie, feeling that the Weinsteins weren't trusting him enough to help adapt the character into film:

"...the problem with developing these kinds of movies and films is that inevitably they discover that a property as idiosyncratic as a comic strip doesn't translate well unless you have the confidence of bringing the creator in and factoring him into the creation of the movie. They never, never do that. Yeah, um, they just don't trust us. So without that control there probably shouldn't be an Opus movie^[8]

Ultimately, the Weinstein Company put the film in turnaround by 2007, with Breathed refusing to participate anymore in the production of the film, and no one entirely satisfied with the results in order to meet the Christmas 2008 deadline. As Breathed would comment to the Houston Chronicle:

"They were set and determined to make the cheapest animated film in Hollywood history, and they finally gave up trying to figure it out, thank God,"^[9]"

The film rights for Opus would remain dormant with the Weinstein Company, up until the 2017 sexual allegations that would bring the company to its ultimate demise. Rights were then transferred to its successor entity Spyglass Media Group, with Miramax still holding a stake in the property. In February 2022, it was announced that Berkeley Breathed, Spyglass Media Group and Miramax, would be developing a Bloom County animated series for Fox, featuring Opus as one of the main characters.^[10]

Surfaced Content

At least three animation tests for Opus are known to exist. The first test was produced around the time the project was initially announced in 2001. This test was directed by Eric Goldberg, and animated by DUCK Studios. In it, a director (voiced by John Cleese) attempts to get a suspicious Opus (voiced by Joe Alaskey) to do a scene where he gets attacked by a whale. A second animation test would later be produced in 2005 by Blur Studio, under the direction of Paul Taylor. This test depicts a dramatic scene, possibly from one of the finished screenplays, in which Opus consoles May the Mayfly as she lies on her deathbed. In the third known test (possibly done by Wild Brain), Opus (here voiced by David Hyde Pierce) works at a fast food restaurant as he tries to resists the temptation to pull off the pants of two customers with exposing buttocks. Berkeley Breathed has been known to share theses tests at occasional convention appearances.^[11]

Several production materials and concept work from The Last Christmas production have also surfaced up online, including a scene from a storyboard animatic and a brief pre-visualization sequence.