Netflix, Amazon and DreamWorks Animation are all reportedly battling for the rights to Jennifer Lopez and Anthony Ramos’ big-screen version of Bob The Builder.
In news that might make some British readers do a double take, the animated children’s TV show Bob The Builder is being adapted into a film by Jennifer Lopez’s production company, and interest is such that a bidding war has reportedly sparked up.
According to Deadline's exclusive, Netflix, Amazon MGM and DreamWorks Animation are all interested in partnering with Jennifer Lopez’s Nuyorican Productions on the animated project.
Unexpected though ‘Jennifer Lopez’s Bob The Builder’ might be as a headline, the musician and star’s plans for the film have plenty of logic behind them. Actor Anthony Ramos – who’ll produce the film alongside Lopez – originally came up with the idea of telling a Bob The Builder story set in Puerto Rico.
Ramos will provide the voice of Bob – Roberto – who “travels to Puerto Rico for a major construction job, takes on issues affecting the island and digs deeper into what it means to build,” according to Deadline.
Bob The Builder was first created by British writer and producer Keith Chapman in 1999. Airing on CBBC, and featuring the voice of Neil Morrisey as the cheerful construction worker with a can-do attitude, the show was so popular that it spawned a novelty record and was exported to the US and Japan. (Fun fact: Chapman is also the creator of the phenomenally successful PAW Patrol.)
US toy giant Mattel bought the rights to Bob The Builder in the 2010s, and Lopez’s production company has since struck a deal with the firm to make this new, Puerto Rico-set movie, which will be written by Felipe Vargas. Animation, meanwhile, will be handled by ShadowMachine, the studio behind Guillermo del Toro’s terrific Pinocchio, so the film should look rather lovely.
Netflix, MGM and DreamWorks Animation have all reportedly put their offers in, but there’s no word as to who the winner will be at this stage. Until we find out more, we’ll leave you with this number one single from the year 2000. You’re welcome.
