A BONE Film In The Works?

The Hollywood Reporter announced that Warner Bros. has picked up rights to "Bone," the acclaimed independent comic book series from artist Jeff Smith. The series ran irregularly from 1991-2004 through Smith's publishing company Cartoon Books as a black & white comic. Scholastic has been publishing the collected stories in full color graphic novel format since 2005, selling more than 1 million copies so far.

Smith, who will executive produce, was influenced by classic cartoonists Walt Kelly, Charles Schultz and Will Eisner on the series, which won several comic industry awards. Smith went on to become a noted artist whose work will be exhibited in the spring at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Ohio.

A decision on what kind of format "Bone" should take -- live-action or animated or both -- will be based on filmmaker meetings.

An animated version was in development at Nickelodeon Films back in the `90s but fell through, partly because Smith was displeased that the studio was aiming it for kids and wanted the film to include pop songs.