It appears that everyone's favorite Rabbids are heading to the big screen. Ubisoft said that this was made possible through a deal with Lionsgate. This is hoped to expand the Rabbids franchise, which has sold at least 15 million games worldwide.
The upcoming film is set to be produced by Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman of Mandeville, along with Jason Altman and Margaret Boykin from Ubisoft Film & Television. Serving as Executive Producer is Alex Young. The group revealed that they are currently in talks to have Todd Strauss-Schulson direct. Strauss-Schulson is known for films like Isn’t It Romantic, A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas, and Final Girls. The screenplay, meanwhile, was written by none other Robot Chicken's Matt Senreich, Tom Sheppard, and Zeb Well, and was revised by Todd Rosenberg.
The Rabbids were first introduced in the Rayman franchise as the antagonists. However, the popularity of the Rabbids started to increase through different media appearances and various viral videos. These include appearing as the enemy in Red Steel and showing up in the Wii version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up. Toys of the Rabbids appeared as hidden Easter Eggs in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction and Watch Dogs. The weird bunnies even made an appearance in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag through a cheat that turned enemies into Rabbids.
Rabbids eventually became so popular that it led to the characters having their own game and even dropping the Rayman name. That first game was Rabbids Go Home, which was released in 2009. This new game focused on the efforts of the Rabbids and their collecting as many human objects as they can and create a huge pile high enough to reach the Moon.
While this is the first film for the Rabbids, it isn't their first exposure, so to speak. In 2010, Ubisoft announced that it had partnered with Aardman to produce a Rabbids TV series pilot along with several shorts. A year later, Ubisoft Motion Pictures released CG animated episodes through Nicklelodeon. By 2013 it was annonced that Ubisoft was creating an animated show titled Rabbids Invasion. The first three seasons were aired on Nickelodeon, with the forth season released on Netflix.
