The usual term to describe a Hollywood studio’s decision to cut ties with a progressing project is “turnaround.” But in the case of this particular feature film, as reported exclusively this morning by Vulture west coast editor Claude Brodesser-Akner, the more apt lingo is “spurnaround.” From this morning’s item:

Clash had secretly been at work on a new [feature film] character for the studio over this past summer and fall. It would have featured in “a ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ kind of movie about a kid and his stuffed animal that takes on a life of its own because of the child’s imagination,” according to a development document shared with Vulture summarizing the untitled project.

Brodesser-Akner tried to get comment from the pair of producers linked to the nascent project – Dan Lin (Sherlock Holmes franchise, pictured) and Roy Lee – but both declined. As further reminder of just how toxic Clash has become, he couldn’t even get William Morris Endeavor by press time to confirm whehter the embattled puppeteer is still that agency’s client.

The good news for Warner Bros. is that the Clash project had not yet reached the expensive phases of script commissioning and CGI development.

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