‘Clifford the Big Red Dog’ Set for Fall 2020, ‘Rugrats’ Pushed Back, ‘Are You Afraid of the Dark?’ Disappears

Paramount Pictures has shuffled around their release date calendar for a bunch of their family programming coming in the next couple years, including two Nickelodeon movies.

Clifford the Big Red Dog has been set for a fall 2020 release date. It’s taking the weekend that was previously slated for the new Rugrats movie, which has now been pushed back a few months to early 2021. Meanwhile, Paramount has pulled the Are You Afraid of the Dark? movie from this year’s calendar.

First up, The Hollywood Reporter says Clifford the Big Red Dog will arrive in theaters on November 13, 2020, a couple weeks before Thanksgiving that year. It’s not the first time the crimson dog from Norman Bridwell’s children’s book series has come to the big screen. Clifford’s Really Big Movie hit theaters back in 2004 as an animated feature film. However, this iteration of Clifford will be a live-action and CG hybrid, not unlike films such as Alvin and the Chipmunks.

For those who don’t know, Clifford the Big Red Dog has been appearing in children’s books since 1963. He was just a runt of a pup, but a little girl named Emily Elizabeth loved him so much that he kept growing and growing until he was 25 feet tall. They live in the small town of Birdwell Island where everyone knows and loves the dog.

Last we heard, Walt Becker was going to be at the helm of the movie. He previously directed National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, but has more commonly settled into family comedies like Wild Hogs, Old Dogs, and Sleeping Logs (yes, one of those is fake). Becker has even directed one of those Alvin and the Chipmunks sequels. So that pretty much tells us what to expect from Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Rugrats and Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Meanwhile, on the Nickelodeon side of the equation, it sounds like Rugrats needs a bit more time to come together. The movie will be a live-action film with CG characters, which sounds absolutely horrifying. Just imagining 3D versions of the unique animation style that brought Rugrats to life as a Nicktoon all those years ago is enough to give you nightmares. We’ve yet to hear any details since the project was first announced last summer, but now it’s been pushed back from the release date taken by Clifford the Big Red Dog to January 29, 2021.

However, one other Nickelodeon property isn’t quite as fortunate on this day. The Are You Afraid of the Dark? movie that was previously set for release on October 4, 2019 has been removed from the Paramount Pictures release calendar entirely. Perhaps the studio decided not to pursue a film adaptation, which would explain why Nickelodeon is pursuing a miniseries revival of the horror series from the cable channel’s heydays.

Last we heard was that director D.J. Caruso was in talks to direct the Are You Afraid of the Dark movie that has a script from IT screenwriter Gary Dauberman. Otherwise, we haven’t heard any new details on the project since then. Here’s hoping we hear about it again sometime down the road.

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