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MONTREAL - The team behind hit animated show Family Guy has been considering a Family Guy movie down the line, creator Seth MacFarlane says.
"We have been trying to figure out how to do that and the series at the same time without the series suffering," MacFarlane told The Hollywood Reporter about a potential Family Guy feature, adding that such a challenge also caused the delay in making a Simpsons film. (The Simpsons takes its big-screen bow this Thursday, after almost 18 years on the air.)
MacFarlane also said that The Winner, which was pulled from its schedule in the US earlier this year after six episodes, may not be dead yet. MacFarlane served as an executive producer on the comedy, which starred Rob Corddry.
"It is looking like there could be a future life for The Winner. I hope it pans out," MacFarlane said, without providing specifics.
One possible solution, according to MacFarlane, would be to have Ricky Blitt, the creator of Winner and a former writer for Family Guy, start on the movie script.
But he emphasized that he has no plot ideas yet, and that Fox studio executives would have to sign off on a film project as well. "Nothing is official," he said, adding that if all things come together, a movie could be ready in a couple of years.
MacFarlane also said he would like to find a small story about the Griffin family, the central characters of Family Guy, that can be explored in a feature-length film.
"I don't want to do 'The Griffins must save the world,'" he said.
MacFarlane talked to The Hollywood Reporter after a press conference in Montreal yesterday with many of his Family Guy colleagues, who were in town for "Family Guy Live" readings as part of the Just for Laughs comedy festival.
Asked in the press conference about Family Guy jokes concerning September 11 and terrorism and how difficult it is to pull them off, MacFarlane said he feels that enough time has passed for comedians to explore the issue carefully.
"People are sort of trepidatiously dipping their toe in it," with skits on Saturday Night Live and the like, he said.
- REUTERS/Hollywood Reporter
