Starz Media Animation has picked up the original screenplay Q from writers Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

In a rare deal for screenwriters, the Cheaper by the Dozen and Toy Story scribes also will partake in back-end profits as well as merchandising and ancillary revenue.

Inspired by "Don Quixote," the project centers on marionettes in Central Park who escape from their theater and embark on a fanstastical adventure.

Sokolow and Cohen will produce and oversee all elements of production, while Starz Animation head David J. Steinberg will oversee for the company.

"For us, Q really is a chance to put our feet to the fire," Sokolow said. "A bias against screenwriters is that they are never really in the firing line of production and movie-making. But I think it's really more a case that the system prefers screenwriters to be disposable as a movie is produced and marketed, the end result most times being bitterness or flippancy."

But the Q arrangement allows the creators to maintain a full-immersion experience, something they've been pursuing in the animation realm for years.

No production date has been set.