Kung Fu Panda Director Mark Osborne to Adapt Jeff Smith’s Bone Into a Movie

Jeff Smith’s Bone is one of those comics that you can give to pretty much anybody and they’ll find something to enjoy. The series, which follows the three Bone cousins as they get wrapped up in a high-fantasy adventure after being kicked out of Boneville, has intuitive, flowing artwork and a sense of humor that immediately puts a reader at ease, but it also straddles an epic scope that makes for the kind of substantial work that holds up to repeat readings. In short, it’s one of the best comics of all time.

According to THR, Warner Bros., which has had the rights to the Bone film adaptation since 2008, is ready to move forward again on the movie, and their first step has been to hire Kung Fu Panda and The Little Prince director Mark Osborne and screenwriter Adam Kline. The studio’s goal is to make a trilogy of movies out of the series.

Osborne said to THR:

Bone is very special and unconventional because it blends elements together that you don’t necessarily expect — soft, little comic characters and epic high-stakes fantasy adventure. To carry this into the cinematic realm presents both an opportunity to represent what readers of all ages have loved about the series, while pushing animated storytelling into exciting and different areas.

Kline said of the comic, “As source material goes, Jeff’s epic is something of a unicorn: mythic, whimsical and pure in equal measure.”

There’s no release date set for the film yet, but considering it just found its writer and director, don’t expect to see it anytime soon.