Paramount Animation, Tom Wheeler Team for Weird Science Adventure 'C.O.S.M.O.S.'

Paramount Animation options Wheeler's upcoming book series that is described described as 'Men in Black' meets 'Willy Wonka' with a shout out to 'Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.'

Paramount Animation is heading realms unknown with Tom Wheeler, the writer of Puss in Boots and co-creator of Netflix’s Cursed.

The studio division has optioned the film rights to C.O.S.M.O.S., the upcoming children’s adventure book series written by Wheeler. Wheeler is also attached to write the adaptation.

C.O.S.M.O.S. is described as “Men in Black meets Willy Wonka with a shout out to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and “an epic, mind-bending, adventure that celebrates curiosity, diversity and the power of science to save our world,” according to studio insiders.

The first book in the series is titled The Doomsday Vault and isn’t scheduled to hit shelves for over a year, on March 15, 2022.

Paramount Animation is heading into a busy period as it readies several movies in the next few years. Wrestling-themed Rumble is slated for a May 14, 2021 release, musical Under the Boardwalk will hit July 22, 2022, and The Tiger’s Apprentice, adapting the fantasy book series by Lawrence Yep, is penciled in for a Feb. 10, 2023 opening. Also in the mix is The Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run.

Wheeler created the short-lived superhero-themed series, The Cape, and found success in animation with DreamWorks’ 2011 hit, Puss in Boots. He was a writer on The Lego Ninjago Movie and 2019’s live-action family adventure feature, Dora and the Lost City of Gold. 

Wheeler also branched out into prose writing and with comics icon Frank Miller created Cursed, a YA fantasy retelling of the King Arthur legend told through the point of view of the Lady of the Lake. Netflix adapted the tome into a 2020 series starring Katherine Langford.

He is repped by WME and Management 360.