It looks like a one-of-a-kind romance comic could be headed to the big screen.
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According to a new report from Variety, Legendary Entertainment has acquired the worldwide film rights to My Boyfriend is a Bear, the Oni Press graphic novel that debuted earlier this year.
My Boyfriend is a Bear follows Nora, an unlucky-in-love young woman who finds true love with the most unexpected of suitors — a 500-pound American Black Bear. The new pair will soon discover that hipster neighbors, judgmental friends, and Bear’s impending need for hibernation will put their relationship to the ultimate test.
The graphic novel is written by Pamela Ribon and illustrated by Cat Farris. Ribon is set to adapt the screenplay, as well as executive produce along with Alex Hertzberg, Joe Nozemack, James Lucas Jones, and Oni Entertainment‘s Charlie Chu. Legendary‘s Jon Silk and Ali Mendes will oversee the project.
Ribon is no stranger to the film world, previously writing Moana, Smurfs: The Lost Village, and the upcoming Ralph Breaks the Internet. Her other comic work includes BOOM Studios’ SLAM!, as well as issues of the Rick and Morty tie-in comic. My Boyfriend is a Bear, as it turns out, comes from a very specific personal place for Ribon.
“I was a few months into dating a man when I realized I was dating a bear,” Ribon told The A.V. Club earlier this year. “He was messy and a little louder than I was accustomed to, having been living alone in my apartment for some time. He’d hear the rustle of a potato chip bag in my pantry and come running. Soon I was hiding food from him, as a candy bar or box of cookies wouldn’t survive a night. I mean, it went deeper than food. He would take his suit jacket off to smoke a cigarette and hang that jacket on a tree branch. Who does that? He was part Huckleberry Finn, part American Black Bear.”
“The opening pages of MBIAB are from this epiphany,” Ribon continued. “I had bought an It’s-It, turned around to get a plate and knife, and turned back seconds later to discover he’d already torn the box open with his bare/bear hand and was already three bites into the giant treat. We were a semi-long distance relationship that always had an element of ‘This might have to end in a week or so’ because of his job. I started thinking about it in terms of him going into hibernation, and well, here go you.”
Are you excited to see My Boyfriend is a Bear make its way to the big screen? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
