Bob the Builder is heading to the big screen, courtesy of Amazon and Jennifer Lopez, here are the details.
We can’t be the only ones who never expected to type the words Bob The Builder and Jennifer Lopez in the same sentence, but here we are.
Background first. Bob The Builder began life as an animated television series, created by Keith Chapman in 1990 – Chapman went on to create the hugely successful PAW Patrol. Men Behaving Badly star Neil Morrissey voiced the titular character for a whopping eighteen series between 1999 and 2011. It followed the jovial Bob and his anthropomorphic building manchines as they solved construction problems around the villiage.
Can We Fix It?, the show’s earworm of a theme song written by Paul K. Joyce, even made its way to the top of the charts, beating Westlife’s What Makes A Man to Christmas number one in 2000.
The rights were then purchased by American comany Mattel, who made a new version in 2015, replacing Morrissey with Lee Ingleby. The show was criticized by fans of the original series.
It was reported back in February a film was in development, and that there was a bidding war between Netflix, Amazon MGM and Dreamworks. According to Deadline, Amazon won. Jennifer Lopez has soon followed.
Lopez will voice a character in the film. Anthony Ramos meanwhile came up with the idea of setting the film in Puerto Rico. Felipe Vargas will write the script. Co-producing are Alex Bulkley and Corey Campodonico of the Oscar-winning animation and production studio ShadowMachine, and Lopez, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Benny Medina for Nuyorican Productions.
It has not yet been decided whether Bob the Builder will get a cinema release or go straight to Prime Video, we’ll keep you updated as we hear more.
We also have a brief description, which reads as follows:
Roberto aka Bob (Anthony Ramos) travels to Puerto Rico for a major construction job, takes on issues affecting the island and digs deeper into what it means to build. Bob’s journey celebrates the vibrant and colorful textures of the Caribbean Latin nations and their people.
We look forward to hearing news of Jason Statham in a live action Fireman Sam movie next. Obviously, we’d bring you that news at speed.
