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By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

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It might be the perfect title for the famous canine's as yet unwritten sixth book - Walter the Farting Dog Goes Hollywood.

Enlarge Photo

James West

BARKING UP THE RIGHT TREE: Glenn Murray, co-author of the children’s book series Walter the Farting Dog holds up one of the newest stuffed animal versions of Walter on Tuesday afternoon at Westminster Books on King Street in Fredericton. As a result of a movie deal, the Merry Makers stuffed dogs (seen in photo) will disappear before the movie is released and will be replaced by movie merchandise. That will make the older versions collectibles.

After all, this story is about what Walter does best - toot his own horn, that is.

Walter the Farting Dog's creators have signed a movie deal with 20th Century Fox studios, producers Bradley Thomas and Bobby and Peter Farrelly (Dumb and Dumber, There's Something about Mary) and screenwriters Alec Sokolow (Garfield, Evan Almighty, Toy Story) and Joel Cohen (Oh Brother Where Art Thou?, No Country For Old Men).

Teeny bopper sensations The Jonas Brothers - aka Kevin, Joe, Nick and their brother Frankie - will play roles as young musicians whose parents are asked to care for the dog by an aunt just before she passes away.

It will be the film debut for the teen pop-rock band members.

Walter the Farting Dog's roots are in New Brunswick, but he was born - literarily - 18 years ago in a house on Mount Desert Island, Maine, in 1991.

The flatulent pound hound is the central character in a series of children's books by William Kotzwinkle - who penned the novel E.T. - Kotzwinkle's wife Elizabeth Gundy and Fredericton teacher-writer Glenn Murray. Their fourth partner in the book series is illustrator Audrey Colman.

In January 1991, Kotzwinkle and Murray, who have been friends for 35 years, needed something to console themselves after working together on a screenplay that they had to shelve.

The duo had no sooner downed pens about a tale of children thwarted by the military as they sought to find a buried treasure when the Gulf War broke out. The two men realized they hadn't a prayer of getting a project off the ground that cast the military as the villains of the piece.

Walter the Farting Dog became their literary consolation prize.

While they were working together on the movie script, Kotzwinkle entertained his wife and Murray over dinner with the recollection of a corner store in New Brunswick - Kotzwinkle and Gundy had once lived in Zionville, near Taymouth - and a dog that cut a major stinky.

"It was so bad, the store emptied and he (Kotzwinkle) remembered the dog's name was Walter," Murray said in an interview. "I said Walter the Farting dog. Man, what a great title for a kids' book."

With their screenplay shelved, Murray remembers saying to Kotzwinkle and Gundy, "Let's go upstairs and write that farting dog story. We ended up laughing our asses off that day ... I remember rolling around saying someday there's going to be a movie.''

While he's not talking about the size of the paycheque, Murray said they're really just happy to have the movie deal come to reality after four years of working with another film studio.

"Originally, we had a movie deal with New Line Cinema, the people who did Lord of the Rings. The CEO of New Line wanted Walter and they went into a process of hiring and firing writers left, right and centre.

"We saw a lot of treatments and screenplays. This went on so long that their option ran out and they had to pay us all over again. It continued to go on," Murray said Tuesday.

"Back in March, New Line was swallowed whole by Warner ... Walter sprang free. The Farrelly brothers had been trying to get involved in the project for almost a year at that point. They wanted to direct it if nothing else, but they weren't happy with the screenplays they were seeing either."

Between March and the first week of October, it's been seven months of lawyers, lawyers and more lawyers, Murray said.

Plus their own agents, ICM International Creative Management, one of the biggest talent agencies for movie-making, was in on the talks. All the hard work culminated successfully and the screenplay is in the works, if not done. Given the way the Farrellys work and the screenplay talent, Murray said he's confident signing over the rights to the story lines from all five of the Walter the Farting Dog books is going to generate a great bathroom humour film.

"It's probably going to be a fun production. It's kind of easy to be optimistic at this point," he said. "There are millions of kids who probably don't even know about Walter who are going to be going to the movie."

Filming is set to start in the spring with a tentative 2010 release date.

The essential plot line for the book series is about a family who adopts Walter the Farting Dog. Although he has a good heart, no matter which diet he's own, Walter can't fend of his flatulence.

As they write together, Murray pictures himself as Walter, while Kotzwinkle and Gundy think of themselves as Billy and Betty, the two youngsters who have fallen in love with the gaseous canine. Throughout the five-book series, Walter always manages to make the best of a bad situation, whether it's in Trouble at the Yard Sale or Banned From The Beach.

Murray said the most enjoyable part about writing the series - the first Walter book sold two million copies in English alone and has gone multilingual - is that it has been embraced by young cancer patients who relate to Walter's ability to overcome his biological weakness by the power of his good heart.