Adapting graphic novel titles that have built-in reader awareness is far too easy. Warner Bros. is going pro, picking up the rights to Bolivar, a title that won’t even be in stores until 2013, and bringing on Kealan O’Rourke to write and direct the eventual animated film.

Bolivar definitely sounds like it could be a little more whimsical than your usual superhero outing. Sean Rubin has been busy writing and illustrating the story of a young girl named Sybil who moves to New York and discovers that her next-door neighbour is even more unusual than the city’s average denizens. Turns out that Bolivar is the world’s last remaining dinosaur.

A committed recluse, he refuses her early attempts to befriend him, as she tries to break through his standoffish manner and encourage the beast to explore the city with her. But he comes to realise just how much she means to him and what he’d risk to help his friend.

O’Rourke has won awards for his live action and animated shorts, most recently scooping Best Animation at last year’s Irish Film and Television Awards for The Boy In The Bubble, which featured none other than Alan Rickman as narrator. Check out the trailer below.

There’s no set release date for Bolivar yet.