"He's one tough Gazookus, which hates all Palookas wot ain't on the up and square..."
We're used to seeing Popeye let his fists do the talking, but the iconic Sailor Man will be doling out more than a few spinach-fuelled ass-kickings in a new slasher movie from ITN Studios.
Following a recent first look via some promo stills, the first trailer for Popeye horror parody - which is officially titled Popeye's Revenge - has been released online (via Bloody Disgusting).
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 the spinach-chomping comic strip hero is the latest beloved character to be turned into a bloodthirsty killer for an upcoming indie project.
This will be the first of two (so far) Popeye horror flicks to be released this year, the other being Popeye The Slayer Man.
Described as a "raunchy and gory slasher," it's worth clarifying that ITN’s movie is not connected to the Twisted Childhood Universe, aka the "Poohniverse."
A brief synopsis reads: "The legend of Popeye haunts a group of councilors as they intend to open a summer camp." Stephen Murphy is set to play the title character. Rene August is producing, with William Stead on board as director.
The movie looks... pretty much like you'd expect, but it might still be a fun watch.
Check out the trailer and a new poster below, and let us know what you think in the comments section.
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-action appearance, with the late Robin Williams taking on the title role in Robert Altman's highly divisive 1980 Popeye movie.