I’ve spent the last hour screaming continuously in my bedroom because I’ve just discovered there’s a Wishbone movie being produced by Peter Farrelly. Yes, that’s the Peter Farrelly who wrote and directed the wretched Green Book and the monstrosity known as Shallow Hal.
Why am I fuming, when there are so many things in the world to be mad about right now? To be frank, it’s because I don’t trust Farrelly to do Wishbone justice. The short-lived PBS show that ran in the late 1990s followed a Jack Russell Terrier named Wishbone who would imagine himself as famous literary characters like Sherlock Holmes or Robin Hood, playing out the stories on-screen in historically accurate period garb. I have to admit, the costumes were the show’s big draw and as a child, I delighted in seeing all the tiny period pieces Wishbone wore.
I mean, just look at him as the Hunchback of Notre Dame:
So many tiny hats! So many tiny bowties!
Jezebel’s deputy editor Alexis Sobel Fitts pointed out that what was a little weird about Wishbone was the fact that he had human romantic suitors in said story reenactments. To be fair, all the humans in Wishbone’s elaborate storybook fantasies treated him like a human, not blinking an eye at a tiny, furry Sherlock Holmes. But that was the fun of it: Wishbone wilding out in his imagination, dreaming of inhabiting other worlds and stories, while people treated him like a dog in real life oblivious to his layered interiority! Also, did I mention he looked so cute in little suits?
Variety reports that the movie will be a modern family-friendly comedy, and it seems Farrelly will just be producing. Here’s hoping that the Wishbone movie will find a suitable director who can handle the serious weight and drama that comes with such an adaptation!