Friday 2 March 2012

Disney to make alien abduction “comedy”

By Robbie Graham

As any UFO researcher knows, the abduction phenomenon is in no way traumatic, disturbing or profound to those whose lives it touches, or even to outside observers, but rather a source of great mirth and slapstick hilarity.

Recognising this, the best minds at Disney have decided to move forward with what Variety describes as a “long-gestating sci-fi family comedy” called The Pet, about “a man who’s abducted by aliens, taken to their planet and turned into a family pet.”

The script for the live-action movie was originally penned by Matt Lieberman (Short Circuit), but was recently rewritten by Tim Dowling (This Means War). Walt Disney Pictures and producer Scott Rudin have chosen Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) to direct.

This won’t be the first time Disney has explored the abduction phenomenon. It did so notably in 1986 with Flight of the Navigator, which was a thoughtful and emotional film, albeit fairly light-hearted. It did so again in 2006 in collaboration with Pixar with the short film Lifted, which encourages the viewer to sympathise with the alien abductor, rather than the human abductee; and yet again in 2011 with Mars Need’s Moms, in which emotionally stunted Martians abduct Earth moms in order to extract their maternal instincts for the benefit of their own babies.

Disney’s The Pet is still awaiting a release date. Sometime in 2013 seems likely.