There’s been some strange projects pushed into development this year, and every year frankly, but this one has got to be up there as one of the strangest. Michael Bay, the man behind the bombastic, explosion-loving Transformers films and numerous other grandiose blockbusters, is naturally set to produce a live-action Dora The Explorer movie.
Nick Stoller (The Muppets, Neighbours) has been hired to pen the script, while Bay will team up with Paramount and his Platinum Dunes partners Andrew Form and Brad Fuller to produce the film, which will reportedly age up Dora from her TV incarnation. Although details are being kept under wraps, the film will likely focus on a teenage Dora, who moves to the city to live with her cousin, Diego.
A Dora The Explorer movie has actually been in the works since 2015, when Paramount was developing it with Puss In Boots writer Tom Wheeler and SpongeBob Movie producer Mary Parent, before the project stalled.
The show ran on Nickelodeon from 2000 to 2014, and focused on the bilingual title character who joined her monkey, Boots, on audience interactive quests and puzzles, becoming hugely popular and launching a very profitable merchandising stream.
Thus a film adaptation was always likely, though even Dora probably wouldn’t have discovered that Bay would be behind it. Whether he actually ends up having any fingerprints on the project, as they say, is up in the air, but there’s almost a strange, morbid curiosity to this whole thing that makes it oddly intriguing. Now if Bay steps up to direct it, that would be something.
There is currently no scheduled release date for the film but reportedly Paramount are aiming for somewhere in 2019, so expect some quick movement as the project looks to head into pre-production.
#Peace.Love.DoraTheExplorer
