‘Open Season’ Hunts Down a Third Sequel

Sony Pictures Animation (SPA) is returning to the digital woodland well for Open Season: Scared Silly, arriving next spring on home video.

Directed by Cow and Chicken creator David Feiss (who was also head of story on the original Open Season) and produced by The Simpsons’ John Bush, Open Season’s fourth installment, animated by Canada’s Rainmaker Entertainment, centers on the mystery of the Wailing Wampus Werewolf, who reportedly haunts the Timberline National Forest that serves as the setting for the franchise. Its possible existence so intensely scares the crap out of Open Season’s domesticated grizzly bear Boog that he elects to skip summer camp, which inspires his companions, led by the one-antlered mule deer Elliot, to bombard their ursine pal with exposure therapy to cure his fears.

It might be fair to expect about an hour-and-change’s worth of terror gags, and perhaps another few cool million for SPA’s straight-to-DVD franchise, which kicked off with the theatrical release of Open Season in 2006. It also might be wise for someone at Sony to hop on Wikipedia and correct the misconception that the franchise’s “final installment” was 2010’s Open Season 3.

“My affection for these characters has only grown since we introduced them,” Feiss explained in a Tuesday announcement from SPA. “We’re having a lot of fun bringing them back for a new adventure—it feels like a big party with old friends.”