Garfield and Alvin and the Chipmunks have now given us the first of what will be several imitators, a Marmaduke movie! Complete with CGI dog. Yeah. I guess Adrian Monk will be happy. I don’t remember Marmaduke in either the Heathcliff or Garfield cartoons (except as a throwaway gag in G&F) but Wikipedia says it is true, and also shows that it is what the authors used to write this article. What other cartoon dogs will soon show up as movies? CGI Farley from For Better or For Worse? CGI Pavlov from Pavlov? CGI Dogbert? CGI Get Fuzzy? CGI Cathy from Cathy? And more importantly, can I get paid by major newspaper chains to copy things out of Wikipedia?

‘Marmaduke’ heading to the big screen
Fox hires helmer Tom Dey to develop film adaptation

By Jay A. Fernandez and Borys Kit

March 5, 2009, 11:00 PM ET
Fox obviously disagrees with W.C. Fields’ admonition never to work with animals. It’s a veritable zoo over in Century City.

The studio has signed director Tom Dey to develop a big-screen adaptation of “Marmaduke.” Brad Anderson created the decades-running newspaper comic strip, about a mischievous Great Dane who lives with the Winslow family, in 1954. The big dog then appeared in several animated episodes of “Heathcliff” and “Garfield and Friends.”

The studio declined comment on any specifics for the feature because the project is in the early stages of development.