Noah Baumbach worked on Madagascar 3 script

Film studios have been reaching out to unexpected screenwriters to work on their animated films lately, with solid results. Pixar recruited Thomas McCarthy (The Visitor) and Oscar-winner Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) to work on Up and Toy Story 3 respectively. Dreamworks have hired writers even further out of the box, calling upon Charlie Kaufman for Kung Fu Panda 2, and – as has just been revealed – Noah Baumbach for Madagascar 3.

Nikki Finke on Deadline has posted a company-wide memo from DreamWorks Animation head Jeffrey Katzenberg, in which he unveils the fact that Baumbach did 60 pages of rewrite work on the Madagascar sequel (which he describes as “exc!!!”).

I’m looking forward to seeing Baumbach inject the Madagascar characters with a sense of aloof entitlement!

Baumbach is best known as the writer/director of The Squid and the Whale (which is excellent, or rather “exc!!!”), Margot at the Wedding (which is abominable) and Greenberg (which is somewhere in-between). However, he is no stranger to writing for animated characters. He recently collaborated with Wes Anderson on the screenplay for Fantastic Mr. Fox (they also co-wrote The Life Aquatic).

Discuss: Which famous screenwriter would you like to see paired up with an animated film franchise?