April 3, 2006
Its now official.
Twentieth Century Fox has announced that "The Simpsons Movie", a big screen animated feature will be directed by David Silverman, co-director of "Monsters Inc." and "The Simpsons" TV series supervising animation director.
The movie will open worldwide theatrically July 27, 2007.
The upcoming film was first revealed in a promo during Fox's "American Idol" broadcast with 'Springfield' newsman 'Kent Brockman' saying the planned feature would be announced on the upcoming Sunday broadcast of "The Simpsons" series.
Fox then introduced a teaser trailer Friday on prints of "Ice Age: The Meltdown", where the release date was officially flashed.
Producer James L. Brooks and his staff are in the storyboard stage following two years of script drafts and three cast readings.
News of the movie first became known in 2001, when a feature option was made part of contract renewals for the show's voice cast.
"We've taken script security to the point of lunacy, though it helped that we wrote it in Aramaic," said Mike Scully, who wrote the screenplay with creator Matt Groening, Brooks, Al Jean, Ian Maxtone-Graham, George Meyer, David Mirkin, Mike Reiss, Matt Selman, John Swartzwelder and Jon Vitti.
Cast will include show regulars Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Pamela Hayden and Tress MacNeille.
"We tried to save this until the end of the series, but that intention was undone by good ratings," said Groening.
Brooks will produce "The Simpsons Movie" with Groening, Jean, Scully and Richard Sakai.
