You'll shoot your eye out, kid.
Mark Hammer is writing a script based on Bazooka Joe, comic-strip boy whose adventures come packaged with nasty bubble gum. However, anytime the phrase “child-friendly misadventures” is mentioned in the proximity of an upcoming feature, you know the cold hard cash will come pouring in, no matter what the subject is.
Case in point: Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Hammer, who penned a spec called Sonny Takes Peru, failed to have his work picked up. Life, however, has a funny way of paying a person back for their hard word. The script showcased some chops and landed the Orange County Chapman University grad some meetings with execs at Tornante Co. They were looking for a wide-eyed optimist to begin work on bringing the eye-patch wearing (for reasons never explained), bubble-gum-chewing kid to life.
Joe is sometimes joined by a host of friends with the names Pesty, Mort (always with a turtleneck sweater pulled up over his mouth), Toughie, Hungry Herman, love interest Jane and a dog named Walkie Talkie.
Bazooka, the gum and the comic, are a part of Topps, the famed trading card company which was purchased by Tornante’s Michael Eisner in 2007.
