WedgeWorks, the production company of Ice Age director Chris Wedge, has picked up the feature film rights to Kirsten Bakis' Lives of the Monster Dogs.  Per Heat Vision, the story "revolves around a group of soldier dogs genetically engineered by mad Prussian scientists hiding in a Canadian village. The hyper-intelligent dogs, who walk erect and use voice boxes to communicate, revolt against their masters and, dressed in 19th century formal wear, show up in modern New York. The book is told through the eyes of a NYU student who becomes the chronicler of the dogs' glamorous lives, which, as they revert to their animal states for longer and longer periods, turn tragic."  That sounded amazing until the tragic part.  Why go all Flowers for Algernon?  Leave it at dogs in 19th-century formal wear.  That's a perfect movie right there.  It makes me think of an Up spin-off that centered on Muntz' dogs.

Adam Kline (who recently did a rewrite on the adaptation of Artemis Fowl) will adapt Monster Dogs with Wedge looking to make his live-action directorial debut.