Sony Pictures Animation buys rights to INSTANT KARMA

Sony Pictures Animation has acquired the rights to a live-action/CGI hybrid called Instant Karma. Paul Hernandez wrote the script for the comedy fantasy film and is set to direct. While this sounds like a sweet deal for Sony, the project has been gestating since 2003. Sony nabbed the project out of turnaround from New Line.  Karma was first set up at DreamWorks before moving over to Universal and Imagine.  It was close to going into production when at New Line. Dwayne Johnson, Pierce Brosnan, Mira Sorvino, Eartha Kitt and Gene Wilder, among others in the voice cast.

You'd think that by now the film would have lost it's steam, but no. What has attracted execs to the project is it's story. The film follows "a misguided safecracker from New Orleans through his life lessons from a near-death experience only to find himself reincarnated as a fly. As the hero does good deeds to improve his karma, he moves up the food chain through a variety of animals, such as a frog, raccoon and dog, trying to get back to his human body and the woman he loves."

Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio (Pirates of the Caribbean scribes) are producing. Hernandez got his start at Disney's in-house writing program and was a writer on Disney's Sky High. The story sounds pretty cool and I am sure it will make a decent film. The success of Hop probably had a lot to do with the purchase.

What are your thought s on this news?