Netflix’s Beat Bugs heading to big screen at MGM
The Hollywood Reporter has brought word that the Beatles-inspired Emmy-winning animated children’s series Beat Bugs, which airs on Netflix, is getting the big screen treatment as MGM has acquired the film rights.
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The series, created and directed by Josh Wakely (Motown Magic), follows a group of five anthropomorphic bugs living in an overgrown suburban backyard they know as Village Green and the adventures and life lessons they encounter along the way. In setting itself apart from other similar genre programs, the series utilizes the musical library of The Beatles and weaves the songs through the narratives to help the bugs learn life lessons, with the songs themselves performed by contemporary artists including Sia, Pink, Eddie Vedder, and Rod Stewart.
The film will be written and produced by Wakely through his banner Grace: A Storytelling Company, while no director is currently attached for the project. Since its debut in 2016, the series, which has been nominated for nine Daytime Emmy Awards and winning two, has run for three seasons and 52 episodes including an interactive special than featured an extended runtime of 48 minutes.
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The project will be overseen by MGM’s motion pictures group president Jonathan Glickman as well as production co-president Cassidy Lange and production VP Tabitha Shick. It also marks the second upcoming film based around the classic British band The Beatles, with the first coming in Universal’s upcoming musical dramedy Yesterday in which after being in an accident a man discovers he’s the only one who remembers their music. The Danny Boyle-helmed project is set to hit theaters on June 28.