The Owl House

The Owl House would be a 2029 fantasy horror comedy heist film directed by Nia DaCosta from an screenplay by DeCosta, Dana Terrace, Guillermo del Toro, and Rachael Vine and a story by DeCosta, Terrace, and del Toro. Based on the TV series of the same name by Terrace, the film would be produced by Terrace, del Toro, Tim Burton, and Denise DiNovi. The film would star the voices of Glenn Close, Alex Hirsch, Martin Short, and Tom Hardy. Danny Elfman would compose the score for the film.

Development on a live-action adaptation of The Owl House would begin in early 2026, with Terrace, del Toro, and Burton set to write and co-produce the film alongside DeNovi. Vine, a The Owl House writer, would join in mid-2026. Close and Hirsch would be cast in late 2026, with Short and Hardy joining in early 2027. Filming would begin in October 2027, and would end in January 2028. The visual effects team would consult with the series' animators in order for the film to closely resemble visually the source material. The writers would only adapt, and expand on, the first episode, as they would feel adapting the entire first season would be "both risky and doing a disservice to the series' lore and fans".

The Owl House would be released on February 3, 2029, and would become a critical and commercial success, earning praise from critics for its direction, writing, faithfulness to the source material, themes, performances, visual effects, musical score, and production values. It would earn 1.4 billion dollars at the worldwide box office over a budget of 150 million dollars, becoming the hightest-grossing film directed by a Black director. The film would earn five Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, and Best Visual Effects.

The film would be the first of a series, with other five sequels also being released, and being met with similar critical and commercial acclaim.

Synopsis
Luz Noceda, an imaginative Afro-Latina teenage girl, struggles to fit in due to the way she expresses her creativity. Hoping to help her, Luz' mother, Camilla, sends her to a summer camp that shall help her fit in with society. However, just as Luz is preparing to go, a little owl takes her stuff, and ends up crossing over a portal to the Boiling Isles, a magical land full of monsters and magic. Once there, she meets Eda, the self-proclaimed "most powerful witch of the Boiling Isles", and her roomate King, the self-proclaimed King of Demons. The two then make a deal with Luz: In exchange of being transported back home, Luz has to help them retrieve King's crown from a prision known as "The Conformaturioum", as his crown is contained in an area that only a human can pass througth. As the trio plans the heist, Luz begins to see the importance of accepting yourself, and finds her true family with the duo of misfits she landed with.

Cast

 * Paola Andino as Luz Noceda, a young and imaginative Afro-Latina girl, who is accidentally transported to the Boiling Isles. According to director Nia DeCosta, Luz' arc in the film would be "less of simply accepting yourself and more of learning to balance your unique quirks with fitting in, without losing yourself".
 * Glenn Close as Eda, a powerful witch from the Boiling Isles, and a fugitive who scavanges and sells human objects, a buisness througth she meets Luz. DeCosta would state that "Close is an actress of a wide raneg. And she manages to give the character her characteristic balance of warmth and snarky humor, wgile still making the character her own, and that makes her just perfect for the role". Close would describe her as "a girl who is not as bad as it appears. At first she looks like a con artist, but then you realize she's more of an inmature and mischeveous girl, and begin to see her big, big heart". Close would provide both the voice and motion-capture for Eda.
 * Alex Hirsch as the voice of King, a little self-centered and feisty creature who is the self-described "King of Demons". Hirsch would reprise his role from the series. DiCosta would hire Hirsch to return because "he embodies the character so much he's the only choice to voice him in a way that makes the character justice". Hirsch would add-lob several scenes during recording.
 * Martin Short as the voice of Hooty, the Owl House's living defense system, who is very annoying due to his surreal personality. DiCosta would describe Hooty as "somebody who is annoying to the characters but lovable to anybody else", to which she would cast Short in the role because "he's just the perfect comedian for the role". Short would add-lib some of his lines during recording.
 * Tom Hardy as Warden Wrath, the ruthless warden of the Conformatorium, who is determined to capture Eda. DiCosta would describe the Warden Wrath as "entirely dteremined and completly ruthless, with little-to-no emotion at all". Hardy would provide both the voice and motion-capture for the character.

Additionally, producer Dana Terrace would reprise her role as the voice of Tiny Nose, a prisioner at the Conformatorium. Zoe Saldana would play Luz' mother, Camilla. China Anne McClain would play the Fanfic Prisioner at the Conformatorium, while Lou Ferrigno would voice the mult-eyed prisioner at the Conformatorium. Producer Guillermo del Toro would voice a creature at the Boiling Isles. Mae Whitman, who previously voiced Amity Blight in the original series, would make a brief voice cameo as a fairy that Luz encounters briefly upon entering the Boiling Isles.

Music
Danny Elfman, a recurring collaborator of producer Tim Burton's, would compose and produce the score for the film, which would re-use several themes from the original series by TJ Hill. Elfman would describe his score as "a combination of [his] typical Burton work, and a more comedic and extravagant edge to it". Elfman would compose a theme for Luz that "feels extravagant, magical, and has a big sense of wonder", using several instruments "[he] always wanted to use" so it can stand out in the soundtrack from other works of his. He would compose a theme for Eda that "is both very rebellious and very caring". He would also compose a "comically pompouse" theme for King. Elfman would describe his theme for Warden Wratha s "single-minded and terrifying".

Karen O would write a song for the film's end credits, which would be performed by star Glenn Close. DiCosta would ask O to write a song for the film because of "the touching and heartwarming song she wrote for Frankenweenie", "Strange Love", while Close would perform it because DiCosta would feel "it would add even more emotional weight to the song the fact that Eda's actress performs it".

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, The Owl House would have an approval rating of 98%, with an average rating of 9.8/10, based on 345 reviews. The website's critical consensus would read "Emotional, witty, thougth-provoking, and with enough scares to keep children in, The Owl House is a well-written story that treats its source material with respects, giving fans a joyful movie to watch, but also having plenty of charm and magic to spell new viewers in". On Metacritic, the film would have a weighted rating of 88 out of 100, based on 54 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Sequel
In December 2028, producer Dana Terrace would state that, if the film becomes a success "perhaps the Boiling Isles may go back to the silver screen". During the film's premiere, director Nia DiCosta would express interest in developing a series of movies that further explored the original series' lore and story. In March 2029, following the film's critical and commercial success, it would be announced that a sequel is in development, with DiCosta set to return as director, while most of the first film's producers, wirters, and cast members woudl be set to return as well. In July 2029, producer Guillermo del Toro would confirm plans for a cinematic franchise, stating that "The Owl House has so much lore and stories, that it requires an entire franchise to tell them asnd explore them in a way that truly makes them justice". In September 2029, DiCosta would state that the sequel "contains a story that is a bit more original, that adapts a few things from the other three first episodes". The next month, Cathy Ang and Ashton Tyler would be cast as Gus and Willow, respectively.

Trivia

 * At the opening credits, a flock of owls would pass througth the film's credits. This would be an homage to producer Tim Burton's 1992 film Batman Returns, in which a group of bats fliies througth the title during its opening credits.
 * The opening credits would begin with the door-like portal opening, as an homage to the Burton-produced Disney film The Nightmare Before Christmas. The scene would also resemble the start of the series' opening.
 * Early in the film, Eda attempts to promote a shirt she fpund in the trash as "the latest fashion hit in the Human Realm", a nod to an scrapped idea for the original show that had Eda wearing several clothes due to believing them to be fashion trends on Earth.