Dreamworks Animation will be flying with Dav Pilkey’s hugely popular book series Captain Underpants, Deadline.com reported this week. The studio acquired the rights to the wonderful eight-volume Scholastic series after a spirited auction.
The series centers on a two precocious fourth graders named George Beard and Harold Hutchins, who hypnotize their student-hating principal into becoming a superhero. Pilkey is working on the ninth volume in the series titled Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers.
DreamWorks Animation CCO Bill Damaschke told the website that he and his colleagues have been after the rights for the books since 1997, but Pilkey never wanted to sell them. “I know he’d been approached many times, and finally, Kassie Evashevski at UTA and Amy Berkower at Writers House phoned us and simply said, ‘He’s ready,’” Damaschke said. “There’s a great anarchic combination of kid and adult humor, and George and Harold are these terrific mischievous characters. And we felt that hypnotizing the principal is one of those great ideas. We’re all big fans of the book.”
