Warner Brother’s Option Family Circus After watching the success of Spiderman, Warner Brother’s have thrown their beret into the mix by purchasing the rights to Bill Keane’s brainchild, hoping to turn it into the next colossal motion picture. As is often the case, celebrities reacted to the news with a mixture of excitement and trepidation (DMX said the idea was phat and Kathy Bates was called fat). In short, the buzz in tinsel town was astronomical. Several directors scrambled to attach themselves to the project, most notably – Oliver Stone and Roman Polanski, but none have been inked yet. So far the cast includes Frankie Muniz as the brother who’s not Jeffrey; Patrick Swayze, in a dual role, plays both of the grandparent’s ghosts/spirits; and, Rick Schroeder has been pegged to portray Bill Keane within the movie. Some critics (intellectual property lawyers) misconstrued this as a blatant rip off of Adaptation, but when questioned, the producers preferred the word homage. Apparently the ‘homage’ was unavoidable since it was practically impossible to recreate (make profitable) the comic strip into a movie, because of the inherent creative difficulties posed by the comic (the comic has a zero basis or grounding in reality, humour, life, politics, or anything else people could or can identify with.) Thus the comic strip had to be Bruckenhemeirized with the addition of car chases, drug problems, and Nicholas Cage. When asked if he would be brought in as a creative consultant, Bill Keane expressed regret that the project would see the light of day: “I never created Family Circus with the intention of entertaining people. This movie was supposed to act as a gateway for the spirits of my dead grandparents. I miss you gammie.”