It's been on the cards for almost two years, but it seems that the long-awaited big screen adaptation of crimebusting cartoon Scooby-Doo has finally got the green light.

Variety reports that the Warner Bros live action production will be directed by Raja Gosnell, whose recent credits include Big Momma's House and Never Been Kissed, and is due to begin filming in Australia early next year.

There is no news on who will be cast in the roles of Scooby (er, a dog, surely?) the upright Fred, the pouting Daphne and sensible Velma, though some sources are suggesting that the sometime shaggy-haired Rhys Ifans would be a possible Shaggy, and Jennifer Love Hewitt as Daphne. We'd like to stick our necks out further, and suggest the under-appreciated Janeane Garofalo for Velma and Dawson's Creek's James Van Der Beek for Fred.

Plot details have also yet to be disclosed, though the smart money's on it involving the kids chasing a spook who turns out to be a crook, who they unmask to the words: "I'd have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for you pesky kids!"

As we reported earlier this year, the script is by James Gunn, who told online magazine Cinescape it will be a "scary comedy".

The finale of each episode was parodied by Mike Myers in Wayne's World, and indeed Myers himself was associated with the project for many months (see our report.

Made by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? first appeared on US TV screens in 1969, and became an unlikely success, given that every episode featured an almost identical storyline. Scooby's nephew, Scrappy-Doo, joined the cast for a third series in 1979.

A new cartoon version, Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders, was released on video in the US recently.