There are thousands of aspiring screenwriters throwing their laptops at walls and out windows this morning following the announcement that Hollywood’s latest acquisition is based on nothing more than a photo.

Grumpy Cat, real name Tardar Sauce, is a cat from the middle of America who essentially took over the internet starting in September 2012. The brother of Grumpy’s owner, Tabatha Bundesen, posted a photo of the cat on Reddit and received instant viral popularity. Grumpy Cat was then named the most influential cat of 2012 by MSNBC, a most important Meme of 2012 by Mashable, and appeared on such TV shows including Today, Good Morning America, CBS Evening News, Anderson Cooper Live, VH1 Morning Buzz, and The Soup. There’s also a hit Grumpy Cat website, multiple stores selling Grumpy Cat clothes, and then dozens of YouTube videos featuring fans with the cat at this year’s SXSWi. Now the unhappy kitty has another reason to try and find happiness – her own movie deal.

Deadline is reporting this morning that Grumpy Cat will soon be headed to a theater near you. Broken Road’s Todd Garner and Sean Robins, and Grumpy Cat’s reps (manager Ben Lashes and rep Al Hassas) have teamed up to produce and assemble a package for a Garfield-like feature film with the famous frowning feline at the center. The article says Grumpy will speak in the film, but no further details regarding casting or plot have been revealed at this time.

Speaking about the effort, Garner offered “This started off as a picture of a cat, but rare is an image that evokes that much comedy. You read all of the memes and the comments, and one is funnier than the next. We think we can build a big family comedy around this character.”

Having seen and loathed every frame of both Garfield movies, I am already fearing the worst for the big screen fate of Grumpy Cat. I hope I am wrong however, but outside of Beverly Hills Chihuahua there haven’t been a lot of major movie successes in the world of “people and talking animals” as of late. Comment below and let us know your thoughts on this still developing story.

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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