According to Variety, Walden Media has acquired Tortoise and Hippo, a pitch for an animated film to be scripted by Shrek co-writer Roger S.H. Schulman.

The film will mix live action and photo-real CGI animation, the formula used in the upcoming Walden films "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and Charlotte's Web.

Relevant Entertainment's Mike Menchel will produce the film. He hatched the idea after one of his daughters showed him an unusual wire service photograph. Taken at a wildlife sanctuary, the photo showed the close bond between a 100-year-old tortoise and a baby hippo that was rescued from the Indian Ocean after December's tsunami.

Schulman took the idea and turned it into the unlikely bonding tale of a cranky old tortoise in India who at first tolerates the baby hippo because it is a chick magnet, but develops patriarchal feelings and takes the baby on a dangerous journey home to Africa.