He's one tough Gazookus, which hates all Palookas wot ain't on the up and square, and ol' Popeye will be doling out more than a few spinach-fuelled ass whuppings in a new slasher movie from ITN Studios.
The success of the recent low-budget Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey has led to a number of classic animated tales being given a horror makeover, and Popeye is the latest beloved character to be turned into a bloodthirsty killer for an upcoming indie project.
Described as a "raunchy and gory slasher," it's worth clarifying that ITN’s Popeye is not connected to the Twisted Childhood Universe, aka the "Poohniverse."
Stephen Murphy is set to play the title character. Rene August is producing, with William Stead on board as director.
A brief synopsis reads: "The legend of Popeye haunts a group of councilors as they intend to open a summer camp."
It sounds like Popeye is being reimagined as a Jason Voorhees-like maniac.
Bloody Disgusting has shared a first look at the movie via some appalling-quality promo images, which you can check out at the link below (the first trailer should be released soon).
Popeye was created by Elzie Crisler Segar, and first appeared on January 17, 1929 in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre. In the '30s, Max Fleischer produced a series of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. Over the years, the spinach-chomping sailor has appeared in various other cartoons, comics, radio shows, and remains incredibly popular to this day.
Back in 2010, Sony Pictures announced a new animated movie with The Smurfs writers Jay Scherick and David Ronn penning the script and the legendary Genndy Tartakovsky set to direct. The project ultimately ended up being scrapped, but earlier this year, we learned that a new live-action Popeye film is being developed at Chernin Entertainment with a screenplay written by Michael Caleo for King Features.
The character has only made one previous live-actin appearance, with Robin Williams taking on the title role in Robert Altman's highly divisive 1980 Popeye movie.
"Looking for the father (Ray Walston) who deserted him as a baby, a sailor named Popeye (Robin Williams) journeys to the port town of Sweethaven. Popeye befriends an assortment of eccentrics and falls in love with Olive Oyl (Shelley Duvall), who already has a suitor, the bully Bluto (Paul L. Smith). Popeye also discovers an abandoned baby, Swee'Pea, whom he raises as his own. But when the spurned Bluto kidnaps Olive and the child, Popeye takes action, with the help of his magic spinach."