Family Guy Creator Seth MacFarlane To Direct, Co-Star And Voice $65 Million R-Rated Comedy ‘Ted’
By Russ Fischer/April 13, 2010 7:58 am EST
Deadline has basic info about the film, but not much more than I just gave you there — it is planned as a live-action and CGI hybrid, and MacFarlane will voice the teddy bear and co-star. (I’m assuming that co-star means that we’ll also see MacFarlane playing a human character, not just voicing the bear.)
MRC developed the film and Universal has bought into it, but I’m not sure where the distribution of cash comes from. MacFarlane and MRC are working together on Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, and this deal gives MacFarlane part ownership of Ted. Good for him, especially if he’s not having to put any of his own money into it.
But my first reaction here is: $65 million? What’s in this script, or what did MacFarlane do to convince MRC and Uni that such a price tag made sense? Is his name recognition really high enough to offset the risk that a new $100m (production budget plus p&a) concept represents? That seems outrageously overpriced. I mean, good for MacFarlane for managing to build such a big sandbox to play in, but still. That’s nuts.
