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Here's another opportunity for a big time movie studio to do the right thing and let an animated creation remain in its original form. The Hollywood Reporter says Warner Bros. will adapt the comic series Elfquest, and that Rawson Thurber will write, direct, and produce it.

Elfquest began 30 years ago as a self-published comic by Richard and Wendy Pini. It's one of the few titles to have been released by both Marvel and DC at various points in its journey. The central characters were members of the Wolfriders, an elf tribe that fought with humans and trolls on some distant but similar planet. Also, they fought accident attorneys, who are the enemies of everyone.

That's not true. Well, accident attorneys are the enemy; Wolfriders didn't fight them, though.

Now, fans of the series will want to know who this Rawson Thurber character is. I had that same thought, the same Elfquestion, if you will. Turns out he must have something on the ball; he wrote the script for and directed the Michael Chabon adaptation The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, currently making the festival circuit. Of course, he's also responsible for the worst Ben Stiller character ever since he also wrote and directed Dodgeball.

The thing on his résumé that excites me the most, though, is Terry Tate: Office Linebacker, which began as a Thurber-directed Super Bowl commercial for Reebok that became one of the first real viral online video series in 2002.

Hollywood has been after Elfquest for a long time (there was an aborted attempt several years ago), so it seems a little peculiar that it would just drop in this guy's lap, frankly. Maybe Thurber has a brilliant plan, although the Reporter indicates that the format is not yet known. I'm hoping for animation for a number of reasons, but primarily in this case because it would be easier to create the world in the story and its inhabitants that way than with live actors, effects, and makeup. It would look like a really odd videotaped production of Cats if they went live action.