Last year, Dan Harmon and Starburns Industries signed on to produce a stop-motion movie about Michael Jackson’s famous pet chimpanzee called Bubbles, and now the project has landed its directing team. According to Deadline, Taika Waititi and Mark Gustafson have signed on to direct the film, which was was written by Isaac Adamson and tells the story of Michael Jackson’s life through Bubbles’s perspective.
Waititi most recently wrote and directed Hunt for the Wilderpeople and is currently working on Thor: Ragnarok, while Gustafson is co-directing the upcoming film Pinocchio with Guillermo del Toro and has also led animation teams behind A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas and Fantastic Mr. Fox. “It’s an idea that fascinates me and one I want to develop further,†Waititi said on the project. “Most people know I’m a huge Michael Jackson fan, so the main thing for me is to make sure it’s respectful of him and his legacy. I’m not interested in making a biopic; I want to focus on telling a story that blends fact and fantasy, about an animal trying to make sense of the world.â€