According to Deadline, Scooby-Doo is likely getting a live-action reboot after Warner Bros. changed its mind about pursuing a new animated film (which Variety reported back in August). The studio has recruited Randall Green, a relative newcomer, to pen the script.
Spawning countless cartoon series (including the recent Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated on Cartoon Network), movies, books, video games, and merchandise, Scooby-Doo first burst onto the pop-culture stage in 1969 in the Hanna-Barbera televised cartoon series Scooby Doo, Where Are You? Scooby and his crew (or owners, really) of “meddling kids” Freddie, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy were essentially detectives who, driving around in the iconic Mystery Machine, often stumbled onto mysteries involving monsters, ghouls, and other supernatural beings that haunted various locales…though more often than not, the creatures ended up being persons in disguise with criminal motives, such as covering up a robbery or scam.
A fresh take seems to be a good idea: 2002’s Scooby-Doo and 2004’s Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed, both mixes of live-action and CGI, were successful enough at the box-office but flops with audiences. Many complained that Scooby’s transitions to live-action failed to capture the more playful, charming qualities of the cartoon series. It’s all the more noteworthy then that Warner Bros. decided to forgo an animated film and that the films’ original producers, Charles Roven and Richard Suckle, are also behind the new endeavor. Both films starred Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Linda Cardellini, Matthew Lillard, and Neil Fanning as the voice of Scooby-Doo. There is no word yet on potential cast members or a director for the new project.