Ricky Gervais' Children's Book Series to Get 3D Film Treatment

Ricky Gervais and Universal's Illumination Entertainment have announced plans to adapt Gervais' Flanimals children's books into a feature 3D animated movie.

The series' books sculpt another world populated by 50 unimaginably ugly species of creatures. Gervais will voice the lead monster. "It will be great to play a short, fat, sweaty loser for a change," he told Variety. "A real stretch."

Illumination Entertainment is Universal's bid to stake out a place in the lucrative animation market. Its debut film, Despicable Me, opens next year, and Flanimals is poised to be another of its flagship productions.

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