DreamWorks Animation has tapped screenwriting couple Joe Syracuse (Us & Them) and Lisa Addario (Surf’s Up) to pen a new film under the working title, Imaginary Enemies. The story idea originated at an internal DreamWorks Animation retreat a few years ago. Director Mike Mitchell (Shrek Forever After) is developing the project alongside the writers, but is not currently attached to direct the film.

via THR:

The germ of the concept was that the imaginary friend trope had been played out in so many ways already that the truly original approach would be the concept of the imaginary enemy. So the new project will be told from the point of view of the imaginary friends who had long been used as scapegoats by unscrupulous children looking for someone else to blame for their misdeeds. Eventually fed up, those imaginary people come looking for some payback when the kids are grown up.

The split worlds of the imaginary and real worlds has led to discussions about the film becoming a possible live-action/animation hybrid.