>>150450151 (OP)
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The CG Casper movie was to be directed by Simon Wells, who originally was going to direct the sequel to the live-action 1995 movie, but when Casper 2 was cancelled in July 2000 due to poor reception of the DTV movies and hesitation of its star Christina Ricci, he backed out from that one, and moved on to direct the remake of The Time Machine, released in March 2002.
Wells came back to DreamWorks following the indestructible failure of Disney's Mars Needs Moms (and the closure of ImageMovers Digital), and once Harvey Comics' owner Classic Media was purchased by DreamWorks, and rebranded as a newly formed DreamWorks Classics, the studio had plans to make movies and shows based on old properties, with Mr. Peabody and Sherman releasing to theatres on March 14, 2014. Weeks beforehand, they announced a CG Casper movie was in development. Wells was set to write and direct with John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky (writers and producers of King of the Hill and co-creators of Silicon Valley) attached to co-write with. Around that same time, another property from the Harvey line, Hot Stuff the Little Devil, was being developed as a live-action/CG-hybrid movie, with Lizzie and Wendy Molyneux (writers of Bob's Burgers) to pen the script, both were hoping to start a cinematic universe of their own.
However by the time Mr. Peabody and Sherman came to theatres, it was a box office bomb, and the studio was already facing its economic downturn of its own by the end of that same year, cancelling projects left and right, including then-upcoming B.O.O., a similar CG supernatural ghost-themed adventure comedy which was already having a troubled production of its own. Both Casper and Hot Stuff movies ended up also being scrapped.
