Early attempts

In 1992, John B. Carls formed the family-film production company, Wild Things Productions, with Maurice Sendak, writer and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are. They acquired rights to other children's books, including Harold and the Purple Crayon and whose author Crockett Johnson, was a mentor to Sendak. Sendak and Denise Di Novi were producers.^[10] About 1994, Michael Tolkin was brought in to write the script and Henry Selick was to direct, but Selick moved on to James and the Giant Peach for Walt Disney Pictures. Carls picked Spike Jonze to develop the film, a combination of live action and animation. David O. Russell was brought in to help with rewrites.^[11] Multiple screenplays, casting, storyboards, and animation work started but Jonze had to abandon the project after more than a year working on it when new management at TriStar Pictures stopped it, two months before principal photography was to begin.^{[12][13][14][15][16]}

In February 2010, it was reported that Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment were developing a CGI-animated film adaptation of Harold and the Purple Crayon, to be produced by Smith and James Lassiter, and written by Josh Klausner.^[16][17] In December 2016, it was reported that the film would also be written by Dallas Clayton.^[18]

Resurgence

On February 1, 2021, it was reported that Zachary Levi would star in the film,^[1] though it was initially not stated what role he would play at that time, except that the film would now be a combination of live-action and animation. It was also announced that Carlos Saldanha was attached to direct the new film, and that David Guion and Michael Handelman replaced Klausner and Clayton as screenwriters, with John Davis producing under his Davis Entertainment banner. Lil Rel Howery was announced as part of the cast on January 11, 2022.^[3] Zooey Deschanel and Ravi Patel were added in February 2022.^[4][7] Camille Guaty was cast on March 1, 2022.^[8] Tanya Reynolds and Pete Gardner joined in May 2022.^[6][9] In January 2024, it was revealed that Jemaine Clement had joined the cast, uniting with Saldanha after having previously voiced Nigel in Rio (2011) and its sequel Rio 2 (2014).^[5]

Around the beginning of 2022, live-action filming took place in the Atlanta, Georgia area.^[19][20][21] Gabriel Beristain served as the cinematographer.^[22]

Post-production

Tia Nolan serves as an editor on the film.^[23]

Marketing

The first teaser posters were released on March 13, 2024, confirming that Harold will be played by Levi and that the character, originally a kid, will be portrayed as a grown man in the film.^[2] A trailer for the film was released on March 20, 2024.^[28]