More than 20 years since Eric Powell's comic series The Goon made its way into pop culture, and after nearly a decade in various stages of pre-production, the feature-length animated adaptation is now actually in development. What a bizarre outcome of the Disney/Fox merger, an unexpected boon to Goon fans everywhere. Though we haven't seen an official announcement for it as of yet, it looks like Disney's 20th Century Fox banner will be backing the project with Chernin Group producing.

At least, that's what animation studio Blur Studio said on the project's Kickstarter page today (with a hat tip to CS). The studio's first teaser trailer, released way back in 2010 during Comic-Con (where producer David Fincher casually appeared), shows off Clancy Brown's performance as the hulking title character with Paul Giamatti's fast-talking Franky getting the lion's share of the action and dialogue. Time will tell just what The Goon will look like today (though it still holds up really well almost 10 years later) but it's got a great pedigree behind it: Blur Studio, the VFX studio co-created by Tim Miller (Deadpool), recently produced some excellent animated shorts in the Fincher/Miller co-collaboration Love, Death & Robots, while Chernin Group has been behind the modern Planet of the Apes franchise and thrillers like Red Sparrow. This is the first solid update we've heard since Miller talked about the Kickstarter project after the success of Deadpool, so hopefully this means The Goon is on its way in earnest at long last.

Here's what the Blur Studio rep had to say:

As loyal fans, we wanted you folks to be the first to know… THE GOON feature is officially in development at 20th Century Fox! And we owe a huge debt of thanks to you, our backers, for keeping the faith during this long journey.  You helped us keep the dream alive. Without you, we couldn’t have gotten this far. With your generous contributions, we were able to finish a full storyboard animatic of the film, complete with amazing voice acting, sound design, and music. This template for the film sold the producers and studio on the potential of THE GOON and we're beginning a new round of development.     So, what exactly does “development” mean?  Well, it doesn't mean that we're making the movie next week -- the proverbial Hollywood "green-light" always happens in phases -- but it does mean we've got fresh wind in our sails, the resources of a studio and some "heavy-hitter" producers behind us. It's the next, necessary step along the path to making the film.   Which producers you may ask?  It's The Chernin Group and they’ve brought us movies such as the PLANET OF THE APES franchise, RED SPARROW and OBLIVION.  They love the project and we're all excited about this next phase and continues the collaboration with the fabulous Eric Powell, David Fincher, and all the folks at Blur Studio.   Thank you all again. More updates coming as they happen! YOUR FRIENDS AT THE GOON KICKSTARTER.