'Woody Woodpecker' Reboot Gets 'King Of The Hill' Writers

Whether you're ready for it or not, a new animated take on "Woody Woodpecker" is going to soon be coming to a theater near you.

With the exception of a short-lived Saturday morning cartoon that aired on Fox in the late 1990s through early 2000s, Woody Woodpecker has been largely absent from the public eye ever since creator Walter Lantz shut down his studio in 1972. Now Universal is resurrecting the character with a very distinctive laugh, thanks to some help from Illumination Entertainment.

Deadline is reporting that John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky have been hired to pen a script for the new "Woody Woodpecker" movie. Judging by the duo's previous writing credits, we can get a sense of the type of project this will be.

Altschuler and Krinsky are best known for working alongside Mike Judge as writers and executive producers on "King of the Hill." They also co-wrote the pilot episode of the newest season of "Beavis and Butt-Head." In addition, the writing team wrote the screenplay for "Blades of Glory" and also created the short-lived animated TV series "The Goode Family" with Judge.

Judging from that resume, it sounds like this might be a raunchier version of "Woody Woodpecker" than we've seen before. At least the character is far enough out of the public awareness that an overhaul of the tone of the movie wouldn't inspire a giant backlash. Woody is now mostly remembered for his iconic look and laugh, and not so much for the content of his character. It will be interesting to see if this movie ends up being closer in tone to "King of the Hill," or if Universal and Illumination are looking for something closer to 2010's "Despicable Me" (which the two companies worked on together).

What do you think of a Woody Woodpecker animated film? Tell us in the comments section below or on Twitter!