Screen Talk: A medic with Manimal instinct

Plans are afoot to bring an animated version of the short-lived US TV show Manimal to cinema screens.

Sony Pictures Animation has picked up the movie rights and is developing the project as a live action/CG hybrid film. The 1983 show followed a wealthy doctor who morphed into animals to help the police fight crime.

Ménage à trois inspires mirth

The 26-year-old actress Leah Rachel has successfully pitched and will write an untitled comedy for Universal to be produced by none other than Will Ferrell and his company. Script details are secret but it centres on the high jinks that ensue after a threesome. Rachel has also sold The Young, the Hot and the Bothered to HBO.

The ice men cometh again

Jay Baruchel is working on a script for Goon 2 with Jesse Chabot. His original co-writer Evan Goldberg will share producer credits on the sequel and Michael Dowse is likely to return as the director of the Canadian ice hockey comedy. Goon starred Seann William Scott as a bouncer turned ice hockey brawler.

Mum's the word for Marshall

Much talk around Penny Marshall's memoir My Mother Was Nuts. The film-maker, whose résumé boasts Big and Awakenings, is Hollywood royalty. And in a town full of people with strange families, Marshall shines. “'You were a miscarriage, but you were stubborn and held on,'” her mother apparently told her.

Hollywood has to grin and bear it

Hollywood takes the Oscars very seriously so it is causing much hand wringing that Seth MacFarlane will host the next ceremony. He made his film debut earlier this year with Ted – a live-action movie in which he voiced a pot-smoking, potty-mouthed stuffed bear opposite Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis.

Dolby makes a dark debut

Patricia Clarkson and Zachary Booth are to start in Last Weekend, a dark indie comedy of manners. Marking the feature directorial debut of Tom Dolby and Tom Williams, the ensemble also includes Joseph Cross, Devon Gray, Jayma Mays and Chris Mulkey. It details the story of friends and family on a long weekend.