After Exhaustive Search "Where's Waldo?" Headed to Big Screen

According to Daily Variety, a film based on the popular "Where's Waldo?" book series is in the works, following a months-long search for a studio and director to bring the red and white-shirted, bespectacled character to life.

Universal Studios and producer Chris Meledandri have acquired film rights to the books. Meledandri will produce.

The acquisition ends a bidding war between Universal, Warner Bros., and several other film studios for the rights to the film.

Partnering with Illumination films--the same studio behind the upcoming animated film "Despicable Me" starring Steve Carell--the studio has high hopes for "Where's Waldo?", banking on the nostalgia factor (the first book came out in 1987) and the main character's universal appeal.

Written by Martin Handford, the series book has sold 50 million copies worldwide.

Since then, it has spawned a TV series, and several video games. It has also been the subject of pranks and controversy--"Where's Waldo" is on the American Library Association's list of commonly challenged books (for it's depiction of a nude female sunbather), placing it alongside "The Great Gatsby" and "Lord of the Flies".

An internet meme also featured a doctored photo from "Where's Wally?"--an offshoot of "Waldo"--which later morphs into a picture of Satan from "The Exorcist".