A live-action feature based on classic Hanna-Barbera animated series, The Jetsons, is officially moving forward at Warner Bros., and the movie already has a director and star attached.
According to multiple trade sources, Jurassic World: Dominion director Colin Trevorrow in talks to helm and pen the script with Joe Epstein. Jim Carrey (Sonic the Hedgehog, The Mask) is in negotiations to play the lead role (George Jetson, presumably).
Carrey, who plays Doctor Robotnik in the Sonic the Hedgehog movies, has previously claimed that he is seriously considering retiring from acting.
“Well, I’m retiring…Probably. I’m being fairly serious, yeah,” he said at the time. “It depends if the angels bring some sort of script that’s written in gold ink that says it’s really going to be important for people to see. I might continue down the road, but I’m taking a break. I really like my quiet life, and I really love putting paint on canvas. I really love my spiritual life and I feel like… and this is something that you might never hear another celebrity say as long as time exists, ‘I have enough. I’ve done enough. I am enough.’”
“You can’t be definite about these things," he'd later tell ComicBook.com. "I said I’d like to retire but I think I was talking more about power resting. Because as soon as a good idea comes your way, or a group of people you really enjoy working with, things tend to change.”
The original animated sitcom focused on George and Jane Jetson, their children Judy and Elroy, dog Astro and robot Rosie, and their adventures in the space-age styled Orbit City. There have been several attempts to adapt The Jetsons for the big screen in the past, including a 2003 version that was set to be directed by Adam Shankman, a 2007 live-action/CGI version from Robert Rodriguez. Back in 2017, ABC ordered a pilot for a live-action series from executive producer Robert Zemeckis, but it wasn't picked up.
In a 2011 interview, producer Denise Di Novi explained why the Rodriguez version fell apart.
"Honestly, it wasn't a mainstream studio version. It was kind of his version of what he would shoot at his studio in Texas. He's got a great set-up down there, and I think part of it is that 'it may be fun to play with all those big toys at the studio' but he has a pretty good system going."
"Part of it is that every couple of years, the genre kind of changes," she continued. "I really credit Jeff Robinov at Warner Bros. with this. In choosing Chris Nolan to do Batman, he really exploded the expectations on adapting all these kinds of titles, the pressure is on to really make them the coolest movies, not the cornball cartoon movies. Every couple years it's changed what they thought the movie should be and I'm hoping now we're hitting it at the right time. I've never given up on that movie."
What do you make of this news? Any interest in a live-action Jetsons movie?