It's a safe bet that Inspector Clouseau will appear yet again, but who will play him after Steve Martin's lackluster performance in the most recent films, and how the cartoon panther will enter his world are a mystery. At the very least, the concept is certainly unique for the franchise. Early next year will see the release of the first ever Tom and Jerry live-action/CGI outing. On the market today, a live-action/CGI Pink Panther film would be far from unique. Though there have been numerous Pink Panther films and even more Pink Panther cartoons, the animated panther has never really appeared in the films, which have always featured Clouseau as the true star. Extraordinary circumstances made Sonic the Hedgehog a bigger fish than it likely would have been otherwise, but the film was no doubt a financial success. The film has dethroned Marvel by becoming the highest-grossing superhero film of 2020, breaking a decade-long streak. It's apparent that MGM is eager to recreate the success that Paramount found with Sonic the Hedgehog. Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, chairman and president of the MGM Film group, respectively, shared their excitement over bringing the character to life in a manner we've " never seen before." Fowler will direct from a script by Chris Bremner, writer of Bad Boys for Life and the upcoming National Treasure 3. Related: Why Detective Pikachu Is Better Than Sonic The HedgehogÄeadline reports that the Pink Panther will be returning to the silver screen in his first-ever live-action/CGI appearance. The DePatie-Freleng cartoon won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and launched the Pink Panther into a successful animated career, accompanied all the while by his jazzy theme tune composed by Henry Mancini. His first starring role, 1964's The Pink Phink, saw the swanky rapscallion coating the walls of a house in his signature pink, much to the dismay of a house painter tasked with making everything blue.
Where the panther truly shone was in his own theatrical shorts, TV specials, comics, video games, and television series. The cartoon panther only appears in the opening and closing credits of the film, and of almost every other film in the franchise that followed, right up to 2009's The Pink Panther 2 starring Steve Martin as Clouseau.
The comedy follows bumbling French police detective Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) as he seeks to prevent the theft of the Pink Panther, a large pink diamond with a fault that resembles a leaping panther. The big cat first appeared in the 1963 film bearing his name, Blake Edwards' The Pink Panther – but he wasn't the star. A Pink Panther live-action/CGI film is currently in development at Metro-Goldwyn Mayer with Sonic the Hedgehog director Jeff Fowler set to helm the project.