Universal Pictures have picked up the latest project Phil Lord and Chris Miller are developing.
A live-action comedy titled Strays, the film is about an abandoned dog who teams up with other strays to get revenge on his former owner. It’s based on an original pitch by Dan Perrault (American Vandal) and will be directed by Josh Greenbaum (Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar).
Erik Feig‘s Picturestart, who packaged and developed Perrault’s script for Greenbaum, Lord and Miller, and their label’s film president Aditya Sood, will produce the film alongside Universal. The movie falls under Lord and Miller’s first-look deal with Universal, which aims to produce features in both comedy and drama based on original content, existing IP and other media formats.
The premise for Strays sounds more like an animated feature, so it will be interesting to see how it works in live-action. Live-action films with dogs as the protagonist don’t have the greatest track record, but Lord and Miller do, so let’s trust in them and hope we’re not getting something like 2010’s Marmaduke.
As usual, Lord and Miller are involved in myriad projects. They recently signed on to direct The Premonition: A Pandemic Story, they’re teaming with Peanut Butter Falcon directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz on an American Honey-esque drama, and are re-teaming with their 21 Jump Street star Channing Tatum on a monster movie also in the works at Universal.
In addition to that, they’re directing Ryan Gosling in an astronaut drama, helping develop a Clone High reboot at MTV alongside Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence, and have the star-studded comedy mystery series The Afterparty coming soon on Apple TV+.
They also produced Netflix’s recent animated hit film, The Mitchells vs. The Machines. And like machines, these guys seemingly never stop working.
#Peace.Love.Strays
