Now that comic books have become recognized source material for movies, it's time for their newspaper strip companions to get their day in the sun, with two different cartoons being optioned for adaptation in movies and television.

Firstly, Samantha Who? creator Don Todd is, somewhat surreally, teaming with Jerry Bruckheimer to bring Jim Borgman and Jerry Scott's Zits newspaper strip to television; Todd will be head writer and co-executive producer on the show, with Bruckheimer, Borgman, Scott and Jonathan Littman sharing that credit on the series, which is being set up at CBS. And then, even more unexpectedly, Bil Keane's classic The Family Circus is to be turned into a movie by 20th Century Fox and Walden Media. The intended feature is planned, apparently, as the first in a live-action family-friendly comedy franchise, to be written by former comedians turned Disney screenwriters Bob Hilgenberg and Rob Muir. Whether or not they'll be able to get the right mix of surrealism and sentiment remains to be seen.

Clearly, the relative failures of big screen takes on Marmaduke and Garfield haven't fazed producers, which means one thing: My dream of a big budget, musical Pearls Before Swine is still not entirely dead yet. Please, please, please...