[CrimsonTide4]

Na, Na, Na! "Fat Albert" Shelved
Fri Apr 5, 7:51 PM ET

So maybe he's not gonna sing a song for you, after all.


Yes, there's bad news for fans of Fat Albert--preproduction on the live-action version of Bill Cosby's beloved 'toon has been halted thanks to that age-old Tinseltown bugaboo otherwise known as "creative differences."

In this case, it was the Cos versus the film's director, Forest Whitaker.

Cosby--who created the original 'toon, wrote the script for the Fat Albert movie with partner Charles Kipps and is executive producing the movie with his wife, Camille--apparently took issue with Whitaker's vision for the characters, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

As a result, both men mutually agreed to nix shooting, which was slated to start later this month, and Whitaker has exited the 20th Century Fox film.

"[Whitaker] and Bill truly had creative differences in the way they see the movie going--it's just about directionally seeing the movie differently," Fox spokesman Jeffrey Godsick tells the Hollywood Reporter. "It's an amicable departure, and, at this point, it's just been put on hiatus."

Godsick also tells the trade paper that the Cos and his producing partners at Davis Entertainment (where the project is set up) are now searching for a new helmer.

Publicists for Whitaker and Cosby were unavailable for comment. However, Whitaker's agent at CAA confirmed he's off the project.

Fox had planned for Fat Albert to be a "tent-pole" release--aka a would-be blockbuster. The studio had initially slated the film for a summer 2003 premiere but pushed it up to this Christmas. Now, with Whitaker's departure and the production on hiatus, it appears unlikely the film will be ready that soon.

When or if the film launches, it will mark Cosby's first as a feature-film screenwriter (he did have a story credit on Leonard Part 6, but we think he'd agree that doesn't count).

Per the Cos' vision, the movie seeks to translate Fat Albert and his Junkyard Gang by having them spring from their animated world into a contemporary urban setting and raise the kind of mayhem reminiscent of those old-time Hollywood kid flicks like The Little Rascals. After a nationwide talent search, newcomer Omar Benson Miller was recently tapped to play the titular character.

In a recent interview with the film-fan magazine Cinescape, Whitaker said the characters "come out of a television screen" to help a little girl. He said the film is "about loving yourself and being able to accept yourself, self esteem and stuff like that."

Whitaker also said the film was to have "about 10 minutes of animations [and] a lot of visual effects...The style that I'm kind of creating for it is a very magical environment."

Since making his acting debut in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Whitaker has distinguished himself not only as an acclaimed actor in such movies as Good Morning Vietnam, Bird, The Crying Game, Smoke and the just-released thriller Panic Room, but also as a director of Waiting to Exhale and Hope Floats.