Mr. Popper's Penguins... not animated

On a complete fluke I ended up attending the funeral services for Disney legend Joe Grant back in the summer of 1995. When Roy Disney spoke at it he mentioned something about a project centered on penguins, apparently that originated from an idea of Joe's. I e-mailed Roy for clarification later on and he responded with the following:

Dear Christian - I was referring to a book called "Mister Popper's Penguins" (published in the 30s) which Joe and I - and others - always saw as a perfect half-live-half-animation project, but never quite got off the ground. It still ought to be made...ask Burny about it.

I never heard anymore about it (partly because I don't know how to contact Burny Mattinson) but an Entertainment Weekly from about two months ago said that the story is being made into a live action film starring Jim Carrey and real penguins: