May the Guard prevail!

June 27, 2019 8:38 AM

Mouse Guard is a New York Times Bestselling, Eisner & Harvey Award winning comic book series written and illustrated by David Petersen. It was being developed into a movie by Fox, but with the company being bought out by Disney, the project was cancelled in April of 2019, two weeks before production was to begin, with a vague hope of finding a home elsewhere. Unfortunately on 6/26 director Wes Ball confirmed the project is dead, but released a 10 minute demo reel/pre-visualization of what the movie would have "felt" like. With that, screenwriter Gary Whitta has posted his screenplay for the movie, while composer John Paesano has uploaded one of his early drafts of a soundtrack theme. A few artists have been posting concept art at the Twitter hashtag mouseguard.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (28 comments total)

oh noooooo i want a mouseguard movie so bad
posted by dismas at 8:43 AM on June 27, 2019

which mouse guard is Martin the Warrior
posted by saturday_morning at 8:45 AM on June 27, 2019 [2 favorites]

Oh, that's a pity.
posted by praemunire at 8:46 AM on June 27, 2019

I didn't know this was a thing and now I am very sad. These are some of the most beautiful books I own and the realization of the setting in those trailer reals is amazing.
posted by meinvt at 8:48 AM on June 27, 2019

It really chafes my hide that Disney is willing to throw hundreds of millions of dollars at pointless remakes of existing kiddie products (not to mention diminishing-returns sequels on the Pixar side of the business) but doesn't see the value in an amazing and relatively fresh property like Mouse Guard. Then again I can't hit Disney too hard for it since nobody else in Hollywood is willing to put up either. Just a big long sigh from me. This looks like it could have been a wondrous film.
posted by Mothlight at 8:49 AM on June 27, 2019 [14 favorites]

Wow, this tugs at the heart. Such a missed opportunity and so much work gone to waste. :-(

I want the rest of this film.
posted by Fizz at 8:53 AM on June 27, 2019

RIP all Karl Ove Mouse Guard jokes, died before they had a chance to live
posted by Space Coyote at 8:53 AM on June 27, 2019 [5 favorites]

Imma encourage all y'all to check out that first link at the very least, to see the gorgeous art that David Petersen has been putting out on the comic series. Amazing story, with a great story.

I'm not too terribly upset about the movie being canceled, as the books are and will be there. Adaptations can work and be wonderful of course, but the originals still tend to shine.

No, I'm not still bitter about Game of Thrones, why you ask?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:54 AM on June 27, 2019 [3 favorites]

Well that post was a rollercoaster of emotions from word one. I had no idea a movie was being made and now I'm mourning it. Although the test footage makes the mice too... elongated. More mouse, less human required.
posted by Molesome at 9:03 AM on June 27, 2019

Huh. I never realized the RPG was based on a comic book. Luke Crane's approach to RPG design is mostly not for me, so I never looked at it closely enough to realize that.

This is a shame. It seems like it should be right up Disney's alley.
posted by Caduceus at 9:20 AM on June 27, 2019

doesn't see the value in an amazing and relatively fresh property like Mouse Guard

I don't think that is it at all. It's that Disney does not want to make any movies where they don't own the underlying IP, or at least that it is public domain. When Disney does a property, they want to be able to spin off infinite sequels, merchandise, theme park rides, and whatever else they can make money from.
posted by tavella at 9:32 AM on June 27, 2019 [3 favorites]

When Disney does a property, they want to be able to spin off infinite sequels, merchandise, theme park rides, and whatever else they can make money from.

The previous example is Disney's misguided Black Cauldron movie from the 80's, which subverted the intent of the novel and has been mostly buried.

It is one of my fondest lottery-winner wishes to wrest Mouse Guard and the Black Cauldron rights from Disney's clutches and sell them to Cartoon Saloon or Laika for $1.
posted by JDC8 at 9:56 AM on June 27, 2019 [4 favorites]

It's probably as simple as it being about a mouse but not The Mouse.
posted by feloniousmonk at 10:04 AM on June 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

elongated

their arms upset me in the same way movie-Sonic's legs did. can we get a Vox or Vice explainer about why sinewy anthropomorphic rodent limbs are a thing in 2019
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:07 AM on June 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

I read almost all of these to my son, doing the voices and everything. I'm sorry I won't get to share seeing this with him now that he's the ripe old age of 18.
posted by exparrot at 10:38 AM on June 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'm very sad about this. They had Idris Elba cast in the role of Celanwe, wielder of the Black Axe, and I had been eagerly awaiting his take on that character.
posted by radwolf76 at 10:43 AM on June 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

But look at the quality of the images, we're getting real close to a feature fully created at a personal project budget level using game animation technology.
posted by sammyo at 11:00 AM on June 27, 2019

It's that Disney does not want to make any movies where they don't own the underlying IP, or at least that it is public domain. When Disney does a property, they want to be able to spin off infinite sequels, merchandise, theme park rides, and whatever else they can make money from.

As I said, they don’t see the value in it! But you’re right that they bought Marvel and they bought Lucasfilm specifically to gain complete control of the underlying IP. Still, all that gets them is an endless series of Marvel and Star Wars movies and that’s not exactly a varied portfolio. But they don’t see value in variety — only risk.
posted by Mothlight at 11:16 AM on June 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

JDC8, now I want a Laika Mouse Guard movie more than ever.
posted by gc at 11:23 AM on June 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

Oh that proof-of-concept movie is gorgeous! I'm so impressed. So sad it won't get made.
posted by xingcat at 11:24 AM on June 27, 2019

... still hoping for the Weasel War book.
posted by feckless at 11:51 AM on June 27, 2019

to Disney, there can be only one mouse
posted by radiosilents at 12:21 PM on June 27, 2019

Nuts, I finally framed and hung up my sweet Mouseguard poster.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 1:12 PM on June 27, 2019

Disney only needs two mouse guards, Bernard and Miss Bianca, thank you very much. Also they went to Australia once? Who knows, the property is infinite.
posted by Think_Long at 2:00 PM on June 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

Petersen did a stream yesterday where he talks what happened, why he thinks it happened, why the mice look like that in the sizzle reel, what's going on with the Weasel War, and what happens now. It's worth watching.
posted by gc at 9:22 PM on June 27, 2019

I see Gary Whitta has deleted his tweet with the screenplay, anyone got a working link?
posted by adrianhon at 6:58 AM on June 28, 2019

gc: can you give the highlights? (at least as far as Weasel War is concerned?)
posted by dismas at 2:58 PM on June 28, 2019

dismas, in regards to the Weasel War, within the last few years Petersen's mom was diagnosed with Parkinson's and dementia, so she's moved in with him and his wife and they are her full-time caretakers. He takes care of her all day and then goes to draw at night, and is completely emotionally and mentally exhausted from it. He said there are days he doesn't want to look at his characters. And with the movie getting cancelled, he's not been in the greatest place. We wants to finish it, and he says he'll get there, but right now he needs to take care of himself too
posted by gc at 4:43 PM on June 28, 2019 [1 favorite]