‘My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic’ and ‘Super Best Friends Forever’ Creator Lauren Faust Will Direct An Animated Movie About Medusa

Ever since Lauren Faust, the artist and animator who developed My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic for television and ended up creating one of the biggest crossover hits in the last five years of pop culture, I've been wondering what her next big project would be. For a while, I was hoping that Super Best Friends Forever -- her take on Supergirl, Batgirl and Wonder Girl for Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. Animation's DC Nation block -- was going to be expanded into a full series (and I still do), but it looks like she's taken on another big project that'll keep her busy for a while.

Accorrding to The Wrap, Faust has signed on to direct Medusa for Sony Pictures Animation, doing a comedic take on the Greek mythological figure.

Faust will be joined by Todd Alcott, the writer of Antz (a movie for children about the internal politics of an anthill that starred Woody Allen, and yes, that actually happened) and producer Holly Golden, for a story that's described as a "comedy pitch" about "Medusa as a decent girl who irks the wrong goddess. After turning into a monster, she learns to embrace what makes her different." That would seem to play to Faust's strengths, especially given the success of My Little Pony, which is currently gearing up for its fifth season.

Sony has, of course, dabbled in animated films produced by creators known for television work in the past, most recently with Hotel Transylvania. That, in case you missed it, was a movie about Dracula by Genndy Tartakovsky, best known for Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack, that starred Adam Sandler, in what I can only assume was the result of me wishing on a cursed Monkey's Paw. Still, it was profitable enough to warrant an upcoming sequel, and may have paved the way for projects like Medusa.

If you're unfamiliar with the origin story from Greek Mythology, ComicsAlliance contributor and mythological expert Benito Cereno has summed it up:

"Medusa was a hot young thing who got jiggy with Poseidon on the floor of a temple of Athena. Athena was not cool with her uncle’s bare ass on the floor of her house, so she turned Medusa (and, uh, her sisters, I guess) into crazy snake hair ladies."

One assumes that the movie will likely take a slightly different approach to the story.