Recent attempts to bring Dr Seuss to the screen (The Cat in the Hat, The Grinch, Horton Hears a Who) have been patchy at best, but we're optimistic that Universal's 3D animated The Lorax could break the trend.
The forest-dwelling Lorax first appeared in print in 1971, but his eco-friendly message - "I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees!" - is as relevant today as ever. Kind of a bleak message though. The Lorax' forest is destroyed by big industry, leaving only a polluted wasteland, and the Lorax buggers off into the smog, never to be seen again. Although it's ultimately revealed that the narrator has a single seed left, with which to start the forest again and tempt the Lorax back, we can probably expect that ending to be substantially cheered up.
The script will be written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio according to Variety, and directed by Daurio, Paul and Chris Renaud, who's currently working on Despicable Me.
The producers are Illumination Entertainment, and this will be their second of three projected Seuss adaptations, following Horton.
Dr Seuss' real name was Theodor Geisel, and his birthday was March 2nd, which is also set to be The Lorax's release date in 2012.