Deadline has brought word that the upcoming live-action/CGI hybrid film adaptation of the classic cartoon Tom and Jerry has found its antagonist in Ant-Man and the Wasp star Michael Peña, who will star alongside Chloë Grace Moretz.
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The film will follow Moretz’s Kayla, a new employee at the extravagant Park hotel who hires broke alley cat Tom to get rid of mouse Jerry in an attempt to secure her job. Peña has signed on to star as Terrance, the deputy general manager of the hotel who acts as a bully to Kayla and begins clashing with his new employee as she impresses upper management with her battle against the animal duo.
Tim Story is attached to direct and will also produce the pic for Warner Bros. from a script by the writing trio of Katie Silberman, April Prosser and Kevin Costello — though none have officially received credit just yet. The Story Company’s Sharla Sumpter Bridgett will also produce.
The film will feature an animated (and silent) Tom and Jerry, whose shenanigans will take place in a live-action world. This is the first in a series of similarly designed projects from WB with the others being Space Jam 2 from producers Ryan Coogler, Maverick Carter and LeBron James; Scooby Doo, which Chris Columbus is currently overseeing; and a Wile E. Coyote vs. ACME hybrid feature, with Chris McKay from the LEGO universe as creative supervisor.
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Moretz has a number of projects in development, including an animated take on The Addams Family, for which she voices Wednesday Adams, the animated film Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs, and the films Shadow in the Cloud, Love is a Gun and Blood on the Tracks. Recently, she starred in the horror remake Suspiria and the drama Greta.
