Berkeley Breathed's Non-Opus Opus

According to Jim Hill Media (via Animated News), Berkeley Breathed is set to work with Gore Verbinski (Pirates Trilogy) on an animated version of his book "Flawed Dogs."



Why For? Because -- as author Berkeley Breathed explained this past Friday night on the first stop of his "Mars Needs Moms!" book tour:

"Gore's sick of pirates. If I wrote a scene that had to be shot on water, he'd run the other way."

And Breathed? He's in a really good position to know Verbinski's mindset these days. Given that Berkeley & Gore are now working together to try & turn Breathed's 2003 children's book, "Flawed Dogs: The Year End Leftovers at the Piddleton "Last Chance" Dog Pound" into a CG film for Walt Disney Pictures.

Not only that, but Breathed claims to be working with Robert Zemeckis on adapting his brand new book "Mars Needs Moms!" to the big screen as well.

Now while this is all fine and dandy, my ultimate question is:

Where in the hell is the Opus movie?

Don't get me wrong... I love Breathed's childrens books, but I think we can all agree that his most cherished piece of work has to be that little short, fat, flightless water fowl. The fact that there was talk of the film (Wildbrain had even done some animation tests), which built my hopes up, and then killed the project, only made me want it more.

Breathed often seems like a child actor who doesn't want to be known for the role that made him famous. When he returned with his "Opus" Sunday strip, it almost felt like he was forced into it, rather than really wanting to come back just to further explore this great character.

Now with the film shelved (for now) in favor of his other book adaptations, it may be a long time before Opus hits the big screen.

Which is a shame.