First Look at Live Action Adaptation of CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG

One of the most beloved picture book series of all-time, Clifford the Big Red Dog by Normal Bridwell, is finally headed to the big screen. Eighty Clifford books were published between 1963 and 2015 (Bridwell passed away in 2014), and the books are storytime staples at schools and libraries worldwide. The lovable big red dog is the official mascot of his publisher, Scholastic, and helped define the publishing house in its early days.

It was turned into a successful animated series on PBS in 2000, and was previously a Scholastic Direct-to-VHS tape series as well. Now, Clifford and his girl Emily are on their way to the silver screen in a new live-action adventure. The movie is scheduled to release from Paramount on November 13, 2020. It has been in development since 2012, when Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment banded together to make a hybrid film that would mix live-action elements and CGI animation. The film was originally scheduled for a 2016 release, but instead, Paramount Pictures bought the rights in 2016 and took it in a new direction. The movie will star Darby Camp (Big Little Lies, The Christmas Chronicles, NOS4A2) as Emily and Jack Whitehall (Bad Education, Good Omens, Bounty Hunters) as her Uncle Casey, a new character created for the movie. Camp was born in 2007 and has been acting since she was a toddler, and already has several well-established credits under her belt and can easily carry the movie.

This past week, an early still from the film leaked on Twitter and quickly began making the circuit:

A lot of Clifford fans are appalled by the early CGI and hope that there will be a lot of tweaking between now and November. When the first CGI look at Sonic the Hedgehog dropped online early in 2018, there was a huge backlash and the studio re-did the animation. Even the movie adaptation of Cats underwent a CGI revision after releasing its first trailer and even updated the movie with a second CGI file this past week. This is still a very early look at Clifford and the final version will likely look much different. Stay tuned to BroadwayWorld Books for more updates on Clifford the Big Red Dog throughout the year!