“Family Guy” Movie In the Works?

Written by: Michael Hickerson (SoSF Staff Journalist)

Once again, “Family Guy” looks to follow in the footsteps on “The Simpsons,” this time taking the popular Fox cartoon series to the big-screen.

Creator and producer Seth McFarland said recently a “Family Guy” movie could be in the formative stages.

“We have been trying to figure out how to do that and the series at the same time without the series suffering,” he said about a potential “Family Guy” feature, adding that this is a challenge that also caused the “Simpsons” film to come about so late.

One possible solution, according to MacFarlane, is to have Ricky Blitt, the creator of “Winner” and a longtime ex-writer for “Family Guy” who has since moved on to other work, start on the movie script.

However, he emphasized that he had no plot ideas yet, and Fox studio executives would have to sign off on a film project as well. “Nothing is official,” he said, adding that if all things come together, a movie could be ready in a couple of years.

MacFarlane also said he would like to find a small story about the Griffin family that can be explored in a feature-length film. “I don’t want to do ‘The Griffins must save the world,’ ” he said. Asked if the success of the “Simpsons” movie would affect his interest in a big-screen version of “Family Guy,” MacFarlane said no, predicting that “Simpsons” will make good money. “But it will be interesting to see if it works,” he added.

Of course, part of the potential for a “Family Guy” movie will depend on the box-office success of “The Simpsons Movie,” and currently critics are in agreement that “The Simpsons Movie” is not so exceeeeeeeelent!