In spite of the cinematic potential of Jeff Smith’s Bone with its rich mixture of humor and adventure set in an ingeniously created fantasy environment, Smith has resisted numerous offers and overtures from various Hollywood entities intent on turning his self-published comic book saga into an animated feature.  Smith even talked at length about the pitfalls of the often dismaying process of getting from page to screen at ICv2’s "Comics and Media Conference" held last July at the San Diego Comic-Con.

But in an interview on Collider, Sherlock Holmes producer Dan Lin reveals that a multi-film Bone project is well underway and that Smith “has been very intricately involved in the development process with us.”  Animalogic, the animation house behind Happy Feet and Guardians of Ga’Hoole, has already produced some Bone test footage, and according to Lin, “it looks amazing.”  Justin Monjo, an Australian writer, is working on the adaptation.  According to Lin the creative team is trying to decide how much of the Bone saga to tell in the first film. Lin expects that a director will be named for the Bone film in the first quarter of 2010, which--when and if it happens--would mean that this property is closer to becoming a movie than it ever has been before.