Kirk DeMicco, the sick bastard (and sometimes writer-director) that made some of us sit through Racing Stripes has his next film lined up with Barry Sonnenfeld producing. The film is called Space Chimps and is about a chimp (go figure) who is sent into outer space to enter a black hole and help some aliens rid themselves of an evil dictator … or some crap like that. Here’s a more detailed and far less cynical rundown:
[Adam] Samberg will play Ham III, the ne’er-do-well grandson of the first chimp astronaut sent into space (loosely based on NASA’s real-life space chimp Ham). Seeking to capitalize on the Ham family name, a senator (Tucci) recruits Ham III to travel through a black hole to a planet where he and his simian colleagues (Hines, Warburton) help rid the local aliens of an evil leader (Daniels). Chenoweth will play a helpful alien, and Thompson will play Ham III’s mentor.
By the way, in case you couldn’t guess, the “Tucci” mentioned would be Stanley with Cheryl Hines, Patrick Warbuon, Jeff Daniels, Kristin Chenoweth and Kenan Thompson rounding out the rest of mysterious names. Sonnenfeld hasn’t been involved in a project I liked in years so I’m a little skeptical. And while I like a good animated film (I’m looking forward to Pixar’s latest), I’m growing weary of all the animated features with lead animals. Primates is more on the right track, I guess. You can real the full Hollywood Reporter article right here