At the age of 25, Seth McFarlane was the creator of a network animated series. “Family Guy” lasted three seasons on Fox before cancellation, but became a major cult hit on DVD. It was recommissioned three years later, and has been running ever since, now in its eighth season, while MacFarlane’s shows “American Dad” and “The Cleveland Show” have joined it in the Sunday night comedy line-up.
Until today, the comedy wunderkind’s influence on the film industry has been limited to occasional rumors of a “Family Guy” movie, and some voice work on Guillermo Del Toro’s “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” but Deadline are reporting this evening that Universal and Media Rights Capital are pairing on MacFarlane’s directorial debut, “Ted.” The R-rated comedy, which is hoped will shoot this year, focuses on the relationship between a man and his teddy bear (the latter character, who will be CG-generated, being voiced by MacFarlane himself), and the director will also write (alongside “Family Guy” alumni Alec Sulkin and Wellesely Wild) and produce. It also has a whopping $65 million dollar budget. Who give an R-Rated comedy a $65 million dollar budget? That’s kind of unheard of. Especially for a TV guy that has never directed a feature.
MacFarlane’s work divides people, to say the least, and this writer falls firmly on the side of belief that his shows are mostly made up of lazy, painfully unfunny comedy, and would rather swallow and then shit out power tools, than watch an episode of “Family Guy.” This isn’t to say that he may not blossom in feature length form (the upcoming Jodie Foster/Mel Gibson comedy “The Beaver” has a similar logline, and topped the 2008 Black List), but knowing his previous form, our guess is that it’ll be “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” but with Holocaust gags and the word “vagina” sprinkled liberally through the script.