Will Ferrell and frequent collaborator Adam McKay will bring the short-lived '80s TV series Manimal to the big screen.

The pair’s Gary Sanchez label will produce with Jimmy Miller’s Mosaic for Sony. Jay Martel and Ian Roberts (Key & Peele) will write the script. No director has been announced yet.The original Manimal told the story of Dr. Jonathan Chase (played by the late Simon MacCorkindale), a square-jawed millionaire who grew up in Africa, where he obtained the ability to shapeshift into any animal. Chase used his unique gift to fight crime alongside a beautiful police detective played by Melody Anderson, best known as Dale from 1980’s Flash Gordon.While the original played the concept straight (to delightfully campy effect), according to Deadline , “Sony Pictures Animation’s live-action/animation hybrid will reinvent that concept as an action-comedy with heavy visual effects and animated elements.”Only eight episodes of Manimal ever aired. In most of them Chase would transform into a hawk or a panther as the situation warranted, though he sometimes became a snake, horse, or other animal. While most transformations took place off screen, the show boasted practical effects designed by SFX legend Stan Winston.

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