Caffeinated Clint
When it comes to the “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” sequel Robert Zemeckis has been a bit of a cock-tease.
Though one could guess – based on his reluctance to publicly announce it, but dropping subtle hints at conventions that it’s indeed a reality – Â that Zemeckis has been in talks with Disney to do a sequel to the 1988 hit for a couple of years now, the “Beowulf” director has been shy to publicly admit it. But over the weekend the first bit of solid evidence suggesting the 2-D bunny is returning hit the web.
Zemeckis tells MTV that Jeffrey Price and Peter Seaman, the writers of Disney’s smash-hit original, are writing the sequel.
“I think there was a time right after the movie came out that the Disney regime at the time – it was a point in the life of the studio where if you made a successful movie they could no longer afford to hire you back,” he laughed. “I guess there were some projects that I don’t know anything about.”
most would know, the conduit to a “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” sequel has been clogged with soot for years. And it didn’t matter who you proposed the ‘Will there ever be a sequel?’ question to, they’d always say the same thing – “it can’t happen”.
Ya see, executive producer Steven Spielberg and then Disney CEO Michael Eisner didn’t exactly get on like a house-on-fire while making the original – and the experience ultimately killed all hopes of a sequel.
Things took an acidic turn when the “E.T” helmer wanted equal shares of Roger Rabbit’s copyright – fair enough, but Eisner wasn’t exactly happy with that.
Eisner could’ve refused to have Spielberg involved, but he knew the big-time director was crucial to the film’s appeal. Spielberg backed up a truck, Eisner reluctantly shovelled in the cash.
But that wasn’t the end of their clash… Spielberg and Eisner fought over many things, like, for instance, which films the follow-up ‘Roger Rabbit’ cartoons would screen before (Eisner wanted “Dick Tracy”, Spielberg wanted his “Arachnophobia”; the former won that battle).
At the end of the day, the experience ultimately soured both men’s enjoyment of making the movie – and it’s partly the reason we’ve never seen a sequel (in fact, several scripts for sequels – one which involved Nazi’s (!) – were presented to Spielberg and he flat turned them down).
In the late 90s, Spielberg came upon an idea for a “Roger Rabbit 2” that he actually liked – it’d essentially be a spoof of Judy Garland’s “A Star is Born”. But, if even just to prove his vote meant as much as Spielberg’s did when the shoe was on the other foot, Eisner said no. And that was that.
So, what’s happened since then? ….
Well, “Roger Rabbit” director Robert Zemeckis has started doing motion-capture flicks for Disney; Current Disney Chief Robert Iger is friendly with Spielberg and producing partner Jeffrey Katzenberg; and Michael Eisner’s got about as much say in the project as he does the way the candy-bar cashiers scoop popcorn. In other words, it’s gonna happen now…
Zemeckis’s latest film is “A Christmas Carol” starring Jim Carrey.
