The NEW Scooby Doo Movie

    Hey, gang! This's where I'm throwing a completley-irregularly-updated cluster of all I can gather on the new Scooby Doo movie. What is it? Well, in case some on blew up your house, or desperados stole your monitor, I'll fill you in. It has been on the internet grapevine for some months now that there is going to be a Scooby Doo Movie. Not "The NEW Scooby Doo Movies", a real, full length, coming-soon-to-a-theatre-near-you, movie! Don't rejoice just yet though. Many say that this movie will not be animated! Roh ro! Why might this be disasterous? Well, does anyone remember "The Flintstones" Live Movie? No? I'm not suprised if you didn't, but those of you who did will know that it wasn't exactly a box office smash (In fact, the morons are making another one right now, but that's another story). Ok, hands up everyone who enjoyed Zombie Island. Alright, boys, shoot everyone without their hands up. Zombie Island was execllent. There's no denying it. It baffles me why the new movie can't be like that. Is Mike Myers too poor to hire some decent animators? Did the staff at H-B all get struck by lightning? What is it, man? If you've got an answer, a suggestion, a flame, or a nice recipe, send it in to Jake_matthew@hotmail.com! Until you come back, I'm Jake Matthews, and you're reading "Mysteries Incoporated".

    December


    Here's some stuff I dug up at DreamCasts, that I thought you might find interesting. Have a look at their page for the original copy, which featured pictures of the people mentioned. Minimal editing.

    Crew:
    Director--------------------Ron Howard
    Musical Score---------------Danny Elfman

    Cast:
    Norville "Shaggy" Rogers----Brad Pitt
    Scooby-Doo (voice)----------Dave Coulier
    Velma Dinkley---------------Rosie O’Donnell
    Daphne Blake----------------Julia Roberts
    Fred "Freddy" Jones---------Tim Daly

    Other Characters:
    Christopher Walken
    Gary Oldman
    Alan Rickman
    James Earl Jones
    Sigourney Weaver

    What’s the scoop?
    We’ll discuss it a bit more in depth as we go through the steps below, but consider this--what are Scooby and the gang up to now? How have they adapted to life in the 90’s? Where the hell is the Mystery Machine now? Well, we figure they either ran out of cases, got sick of driving all over the world in the same clothes, or something. They’ve gotten on with their lives. But now--the word goes out that something from their very first case has resurfaced--the Black Knight is back.

    Directed by Ron Howard:
    Okay, we had a couple of bizarre thoughts to begin with. Imagine this film directed by David Fincher. I don’t think David could lighten up enough to pull it off myself, not with the tone we want. Now imagine this film directed by David Lynch. Okay, stop imagining it now--you’ll hurt yourself. Another thought was Penny Marshall, but we finally decided on Mr. Howard, who would be sure to bring us the spirit we’re looking for--a grown-up Scooby movie that still has that fanciful feel to it.

    Music by Danny Elfman:
    This man’s workload is immense! But hey, he would give the right whacked-out spin to the music of the original series. Surely you could spare us a bit of time to work on this, Mr. Elfman? Go get his Darkened Theatre album and see if you don’t agree he would rock on this film.

    Brad Pitt as Shaggy:
    Okay. You might think we’re nuts on this one, but trust me. What’s happened to Shaggy since he’s left the gang? Well, Scoob’s with him of course. He got rich by inadvertantly inventing some revolutionary something that has something to do with surfboards. He is President and CEO of Shagcorp. So he’s loaded. But everyday he goes home, gets out of his suit and puts on his classic outfit to hang out with the Scoobmeister in their apartment. He gets the word somehow that one of his investments (I was thinking an amusement park, but fill in the blank) is threatened by none other than the Black Knight! Not only is the park in trouble, but so’s Shag cause he’s considered a suspect--the authorities think he might be sabotaging his own investment for insurance purposes! He realizes he needs backup, so he has to get the gang back together. The Mystery Machine is in the garage downstairs, he’s had it all this time--he grabs Scooby and away they go.

    Dave Coulier as Scooby-Doo’s voice:
    Okay, Scoob’s body is pure CGI. And a la MIB, all the cast members accept the fact there’s a CGI dog with them without question. They’re used to it, and so is everyone else. Now, the original man behind the dog, so to speak, was Don Messick, and Don passed away in October of 97 of a stroke. We would have loved to have had Don on board for this opus, but it’s not to be. Instead, we call upon our backup Scoob, Dave Coulier, who got his start with an audition tape of him doing the Doo. He’ll be a good Scoob and I’m sure Don would be proud.

    Rosie O’Donnell as Velma:
    The first member of the old gang Scoob and Shag go to for help is Velma. She stuck with them long after Fred and Daphne parted ways with them, and she stayed in the business. She’s a private eye/bounty hunter, and she packs a piece. She’s got contacts (lenses, that is. -Ed) now, so don’t expect that losing glasses crap to work on her anymore!

    Julia Roberts as Daphne:
    Daphne grew out of that ditzy stage, and now she works for the DA’s office as a successful attorney on the fastpath to the top. She’s next on the list, and she takes some convincing from Velma, Shag and Scoob to take some of her saved up comp time and go on one last case.

    Tim Daly as Fred:
    Fred now owns the malt/ice cream shop. He doesn’t take much convincing to come along on the adventure because Daphne’s there, and he’s been kicking himself for years as to why he didn’t make a move toward Daphne at some point during the time they were together. Hell, they always split off from the rest of the group, you always wondered what they were up to, right? Nope, Fred was always a perfect gentleman, but Daphne’s also wondering why he never tried anything...

    Christopher Walken, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, James Earl Jones and Sigourney Weaver as The Suspects:
    Who the hell are these guys supposed to be? Well, it’s like this. Somebody’s got to be the Black Knight, right? And somebody’s got to say "And I would’ve gotten away with it too, if it hadn’t for those meddling kids and that dog!" Okay, you know and I know that it would be cool as hell to hear James say it, but that might not happen. In addition to Shaggy, you’ve got to have other suspects--and we wanted to have some the greatest villain character actors of our day involved so that once you look at the lineup (these five and then Shaggy) it’s almost crazy to try to figure out whodunit because they all look guilty as hell. Call them anything you want and give them jobs, you know, like Mr. VanBruen, the amusement park director. We think they’d have a ball playing parody versions of their own villainous alter egos. So which one did it? I dunno--you’ll just have to hire us to write the screenplay and find out. Heh.

    November

    It seems like rampant speculation on the new movie has erupted on the net. Castings for Shaggy have been numerous, from Mike Myers to Jim Carrey. Personally, I don't think Mike Myers would make a good Shaggy, but then again, I don't want a Live movie at all. Is it going to be dubbed? How the hell are they going to get the voices right? Figure it out people. You tell me.

    October

    First, the important stuff found on "Scoop"'s site. It's very... interesting...

  • Project Phase: Movies Rumored.

  • Who's Making It: Mike Myers (Screenwriter).

    Mister Mike Myers, who loves to star in his own films

  • Premise: Unknown.

  • Release Date: Unknown.

  • Comments: Fred. Daphne. Velma. Shaggy. Scooby-Doo. If this isn't a project destined for talent like Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Ricki Lake, Crispin Glover and 40 high-end Silicon Graphics workstations, we don't know what is. Studio developers, take note.

  • Scoop Feedback:

  • An anonymous letter appeared in the mailbox at CA about this project. The letter writer simply said that the film would be a live-action picture but that Scooby would be done in CGI, a la Jurassic Park. The letter writer also went on to add that in this film we'll get to understand why Fred wears his orange ascot/neck scarf and the secret reason why the Mystery Machine has a flower painted on its side. Normally this type of scoop would be considered a ruse...right? Right???

  • Another Scooby fan feels that Janeane Garofalo should play Velma (ok, we can see that) and Stephen Baldwin should sport a tuft of hair on his chin for the role of Shaggy.

  • This scooper saw a Burger King commercial with a live-action Mystery Machine and a traditionally animated Scooby and Shaggy (voiced by Casey Kasem). The scooper theorizes that this could be someone's take on the MM van; the concept for Space Jam began as a McDonald's commercial first, remember...

  • Perhaps one of the best casting suggestions for Shaggy has been sent to us: alternative rocker Beck. Dwell on it.

  • An anonymous scooper tells us "not all of Scooby-Doo will be computer-drawn." The scooper also tells us that Atlas Entertainment is the production company and the script is still in development.

  • This was Kevin Smith's response to the rumour that he may be writing the script for a live action Scooby Doo movie:

  • "At one point, when Turner Pictures was still a functioning entity (before Warners absorbed them last year), I was wooed to draft it. They sent me a huge box full o' Scooby paraphenalia (most of it now available at the Stash). I said I'd only do it if Scott [Mosier, producer on all Smith's movies] wanted to write it with me (it'd mark our first written collaboration). Scott didn't want to. I said no. They wooed some more. Then, the Supes deal happened, and talks were put on hold. I hear Burton's attached to it, [Denied by Mr. Burton -Ed.] though - which means it's unlikely I'll go near it (especially because Scott didn't seem to want to get involved)."

  • Myers may also star in it as the villain who almost gets away with it if it weren't for those pesky kids. Actually, We've heard from numerous sources that Myers will not be playing the villain, but rather be the Shaggy-man himself. Of course, what these scoopers don't recall is Myers' proclivity for playing two different characters in each film. What if he's playing Shaggy...AND the evil ANTI-Shaggy? Think about it, people.

  • Whooa! If this turns out to be close to the gospel, then we've been given the gist of the Scooby movie. Of course, it could also be a ruse to diverge our attention from the real facts of Myers' script...probably by some mean old neighbor too...

    "Okay, it's a long one...

    "I've heard through the Internet backwater grapevine that there is a solid outline of a Mike Myers Scooby-Movie script. It goes like this:

    "A la the Brady Bunch film series, Scooby and company anachronistically appear in the late 1990s and treat it like the late sixties and early seventies.

    "They are drawn to New York City by a series of irresistable paranormal crimes: jewelry heists perpetrated by swamp monsters, ship hijackings staged on ghost boats, bank robberies by witch doctors, armored cars stolen by by phantom creatures.

    "Early in the movie, the members of Mysteries, Inc. are rescued from a street gang by a local teenager, who becomes their new ally.

    "During the film, look for really cool fan references. I understand that characters from the various spin-off series (The Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, etc.) will appear in a number of capacities, most notably the beloved Scrappy-Doo. "The interepid sleuths soon discover that the crimes are being pulled off by a consortium of criminals that they've captured in the past, led by Mike Myers. (I've heard rumblings of Myers playing Fred as well, but I dunno.) Classic monsters will definitely return: the ice cream phantoms, the witch doctor, the wax monster...

    "Some cool ideas I've heard:

    - similar in its corny anarchronism jokes to the Brady Bunch Movies, there will be similar character development in this movie: Fred and Daphne are forced to reveal their true feelings (what true feelings?), and Shaggy tries to diet. - the Mystery Machine sinks in New York Harbor, so they buy a minivan. - they wear different clothing for part of the movie.

    "Finally, a tagline (though it's ripped off from the current animated movie that was just released from the video.)

    'Three decades, two hundred mysteries. Consider it practice.'

    "(And a few others I thought might be cool:)

    'Just Doo It.'

    'Aging is for geeks.'

    'And you thought *your* life was interesting.'

    "Okay... Now we see if this is for real. If it is, I'm buying my ticket in advance!"

    Me? Spread libel? Surely not! All pictures are from me, but this edited version was derived from those great folks at 'Scoop', and can be found in it's unedited for here. Oh, and this person reckons Dustin Diamond will be Shaggy, and with good reason, too. Check out what he has to say.