Well, it turns out Jeff Smith was just playing coy with us a couple of weeks ago when he said that "one of these days I'm gonna give in" and sell movie rights to his epic series Bone. Variety reports that Smith has agreed with Warner Bros. on a movie deal for Bone that nets him mid-six figures for the option against a seven-figure purchase price. As the Beat points out, this is the second go-round for Bone in Hollywood; for several years in the nineties Bone was in development at Nickelodeon, but Smith took offense at changes the studio wanted to make and the option eventually lapsed.

This time around, Smith has a lot more clout, with a million copies of Bone books sold and rabid fans across the country eagerly awaiting the movie. Dan Lin, the producer at Warner Bros., is also producing the Justice League movie, so he has some comics background. According to Variety, a live-action version is a possibility, which strikes us as crazy talk; why not just make it animated, since in a live-action film you'd have to animate your three main characters anyway? Who would star in a live-action version? The current roster of bankable box-office stars is notably free of homunculi.

Warner picks a 'Bone' [Variety]
Earlier: Cartoonist Jeff Smith on ‘Bone,’ Drew Barrymore, and His New Series ‘RASL’