Nic Cage and Ryan Reynolds team for animated cavemen

I feel like the John Cleese created animated film THE CROODS has been in development almost as long as I’ve been writing for JoBlo.com. It may not be quite that long but it was announced in 2005, which means it had been in development for a some time before that. At the time it was titled CROOD AWAKENING and was set to be a stop-motion Aardman film (like CHICKEN RUN or WALLACE AND GROMIT). But FLUSHED AWAY flopped and DreamWorks ended its relationship with Aardman. But now, almost six years later, the project is back in the fold at DreamWorks though now as a CGI-animated film.

Nicolas Cage and Ryan Reynolds have signed on to voice THE CROODS, a 3D animated film that’s set for release in March of 2012. Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders will co-direct the film, impressive given they were the announced directors all those years ago. The film will star Cage as Crug, a caveman who leads his family into new living quarters after an earthquake destroys their home. Along the way they meet a caveman who’s slightly more evolved (Reynolds).

While Cleese wrote the original screenplay, it’s unclear if he’ll get a writing credit on this new project. He’s currently credited with “developing” the movie.