Simon Beaufoy Was Approached For Wolverine 2, Writing DreamWorks Animation’s Truckers - We Have The Story Details!
Earlier this week wereportedthatSlumdog MillionairescreenwriterSimon Beaufoyhad mentioned during an appearance at the Bradford International Film Festival that he had been offered and accepted an offer to write a sequel toX-Men Origins: Wolverine. Hours later our friends atFirstShowingheard back from 20th Century Fox who claimed that “the executives haven’t talked with any writers” for the project. NowEntertainment Weeklyconfirms that “Beaufoy was approachedby Wolverineproducer Lauren Shuler Donner to gauge the writer’s interest inW2, but no formal offer was made.” So that’s the final word on the story — there was some truth to the story after all.
Moving on, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter has finally chosen his next project, and its not aWolverineprequel sequel. Beaufoy is working on a screenplay for DreamWorks Animation’sTruckers, whichTHRclaims is in the early of stages of development and that no character or plot information has been revealed BUT they are wrong. The film has been in development at the studio since at least 2001, originally withShrekdirectorAndrew Adamsonattached to write and direct, but went on to helmShrek 2instead before moving on tothe Chronicles of Narniafilms. So what isTruckersabout? Details after the jump.
Truckers is based onTerry Pratchett’s best-selling fantasy books known asThe Bromeliad Trilogy. Truckers is the title of the first of the three books. The trilogy tells the story of the Nomes, a race of tiny people from another world who now struggle to survive in the world hidden among humans. They find an artifact known as “The Thing” which teaches them about their secret history and make plans to return home. Obviously, this project has been in development for almost a decade, and as THR mentions, the scripting process for an animated film is very much a back and forth collaborative process between storyboard artists, so the end result could be completely different.
