Caffeinated Clint
A feature film version of “The Jetsons” has been on the cards longer than I’ve owned a DVD player. Whether or not the failure of “The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas” had anything to do with it, I dunno, but nobody’s been able to get George off that ‘crazy thing’ and onto a movie screen. And at this stage, I think it’s safe to say Hollywood’s one-time dream of casting Charles Grodin as George and Danny De Vito as Spacely is null and void.
Robert Rodriguez planned to make a film out of “The Jetsons” a couple of years back. He’s not now. Altogether now! ‘Pheeeeeeewww!’. Last thing anyone wants to see is the beloved Hanna-Barbera classic turned into a “Spy Kids”-style property that serves as simply a showreel for Rodriguez’s home-made special effects factory and helps keep Cheech Marin in work.
Warner seem intent on getting the movie done though; Variety reports that talented newcomers Van Robichaux and Evan Susser – who wrote the wonderful Black list script “Chewie” – are now on scripting duties.
Producer Denise Di Novi said last year, in an interview with Collider, that one recurring hiccup “The Jetsons” has encountered is the ever-changing film climate.
“Part of it is that every couple of years, the genre kind of changes. I really credit Jeff Robinov at Warner Bros. with this. In choosing Christopher 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, and 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.”
I’ve always loved “The Jetsons” – in fact all of Hanna-Barbera’s stuff. You’ll recall that, like “The Flintstones”, the show started out as somewhat of an ‘adult’ cartoon with most of the episodes carrying sitcom plots, the ’80s version of the show ditched that concept though and played up the science-fiction/adventure angle more, targeting young boys. I don’t know that I ever saw the 1990 “Jetsons : The Movie”, but I do remember that there was excitement in the air because singer ‘Tiffany’ had lent her lungs not only the soundtrack but the character of Judy Jetson.
So, anyway, “Jetsons” – who do you think might make a good George? Bare in mind, he was supposed to be about 34 on the show (said so in an episode here and there) so someone along the lines of a Seth Rogen (especially now that he’s much lighter) or Ryan Reynolds would probably do the trick. Think of anyone, guys?
