The official trailer has been released for Sony's Harold and the Purple Crayon, a live-action film adaptation of the beloved 1955 children's book by Crockett Johnson, Variety reported. Directed by Carlos Saldanha (Ice Age, Rio), the movie stars Zachary Levi, Zooey Deschanel, Lil Rel Howery, Ravi Patel, Camille Guaty, Tanya Reynolds, and Pete Gardner.
Noting that the property has had a long history of development, Variety wrote that Wild Things Productions attempted to get the film adaptation off the ground in 1992. "Previously, acclaimed animation director Henry Selick was attached to helm the project with a screenplay from Michael Tolkin, though progress fizzled out when Selick left to direct James and the Giant Peach. Spike Jonze was subsequently brought in to direct the film, which was to be a mix of live-action and animation, with David O. Russell helping with rewrites. The Jonze-led production never came to fruition as he left the project two months before principal photography began. Sony began developing the current iteration of the film in 2010."
Sony Pictures is set to release the film theatrically on August 2.