Acclaimed comic strip Bloom County, created and written by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, screenwriter, producer and children’s book author Berkeley Breathed, is being developed as an animated series by FOX Entertainment, its Emmy Award-winning animation studio Bento Box Entertainment, Miramax, Spyglass Media Group and Project X Entertainment.
Co-written and executive-produced by Breathed, Bloom County centers on a collapsed lawyer, a lobotomized cat and a penguin in briefs and fruit headwear living in the world’s last boarding house in the world’s most forgotten place deep in the dandelion wilds of FlyWayWayOver country. To wit, today’s America at a glance.
Bento Box will serve as the animation studio on the project. Miramax, Spyglass and Project X will also executive-produce.
Bloom County originated from Breathed’s first published comic strip, The Academia Waltz, which appeared in his student newspaper The Daily Texan. The comic strip soon got the attention of editors at The Washington Post, who recruited Breathed to do a nationally syndicated strip. Bloom County made its debut in 1980, appearing in more than 1,200 newspapers worldwide, until its end in 1989. Shortly after, Breathed started strips Outland and Opus, which both featured Bloom County characters. In 2015, Breathed started posting new Bloom County strips via Facebook on an almost daily basis.
“At the end of Alien, we watched cuddly Sigourney Weaver go down for a long peaceful snooze in cryogenic hyper-sleep after getting chased around by a saliva-spewing maniac, only to be wakened decades later into a world STUFFED with far worse. FOX and I have done the identical thing to Opus and the rest of the Bloom County gang, may they forgive us,” commented Breathed.
Michael Thorn, President of Entertainment, of FOX Entertainment, added, “I was introduced to the brilliance of Berkeley Breathed and Bloom County as a teenager. His signature blend of satire, politics and sentiment hooked me. Plus, I love Opus. Today, Berkeley’s smart and hilarious take on American culture is more relevant than ever. And, together with Bento Box, we’re thrilled to bring his unique ensemble of characters and social commentary to broadcast television.”
Breathed is a cartoonist and children’s book author, best known for his comic strips Bloom County, Outland and Opus. He’s also a screenwriter, production designer and producer on films going back 30 years. His most recent project is the film production of his own story, HITPIG!, from Aniventure, due this year.
Breathed started his career drawing editorial cartoons for the Austin American-Statesman. While a student at the University of Texas, Breathed self-published his first comic strip, ultimately leading to the creation of Bloom County, which earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1987. Breathed continued on to produce 10 children’s picture books. Two were made into animated films, and another was made into the 2011 motion-capture film Mars Needs Moms.
FOX Entertainment’s animated comedy slate produced by Bento Box includes Emmy-winning hit Bob’s Burgers and new series Duncanville, The Great North and Housebroken, which recently joined record-breaking series The Simpsons. FOX is also working on new content featuring Gumby, Catlan McClelland and Matthew Schlissel’s Grimsburg (ordered for 2023), Victoria Vincent’s Dirt Girls (in development), Flintstones adult comedy Bedrock (with WB Animation & Elizabeth Banks) and Dan Harmon’s NFT-backed Greek mythology sendup Krapopolis (coming soon).
