Caffeinated Clint
“Who Framed” sequel could still happen, says Producer
Years ago, Robert Zemeckis – and I’m guessing Disney, who’d never knock back an opportunity to swim in a spa of wet greenbacks – mulled over the idea of doing a “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” sequel. Everyone involved ultimately agreed that it’d be too expensive an endeavour though, so hands were shook, doors were slammed and cars drove away.
“It came pretty close. We shot a test. We had a script. But unfortunately, we didn’t have computer generated animation quite yet – it was just too expensive,” Producer Frank Marshall tells MTV. “If you think about it, in the original movie there’s really only 48 minutes of animation and in the new movie – or in that movie – he was in everything. So it went from 48 minutes of animation to over 100 minutes of animation.
“I remember we shot the test to try and see how much we could do with digital props – We weren’t even into digital characters yet,” Marshall continued. “The idea was to see what we could do with digital props as opposed to what we did in the original movie where everything was puppeted – all the props were puppeted by strings and wires and poles.”
Now, twenty years after the release of the box-office smash, Producer tells the site that a “Roger Rabbit” follow-up is still a possibility. He jokes with the journalist that he’ll get right on it as soon as he finishes the interview (Definitely,” Marshall playfully responded. “I’ll put in a call to [Pixar chief John] Lasseter after I hang up.”) but something tells me there has to be an inkling of interest there still – and I don’t see why Disney wouldn’t be thinking sequel now… especially now that you can create a good lot of the effects on a home PC.
If it does happen, will it be set in New York, as the original “Roger Rabbit 2” script was? Probably not, but it’d be worth considering – it sounds like a nifty story.
‘’Roger was a song and dance man in New York City [when he] discovered that he wanted to be in the movies and so he came across the country. I remember there being a big dance number. He came out with a troupe of sort of Busby Berkeley dancers on a train and they got to Hollywood and he and Baby Herman moved in together. And that’s when he met Eddie Valiant”.
I believe the script was written by Sherri Stoner and Deanna Oliver – they were bought on to write it because the script before it had suddenly been tossed out (word is it centred on Roger Rabbit taking on the Nazi’s – and as Spielberg was going through a spiritual awakening at the time he decided it wasn’t a good road to take).
I’m all for a “Roger Rabbit” sequel if only so we can rescue Christopher Lloyd – whose been slumming it in the likes of bad TV like that shocking Pamela Anderson sitcom “Stacked” in recent years (I did a double take when I saw him on there – I couldn’t believe he had sunk that low!!). I’m sure Charles Fleischer, who provided the voice of the rascally rabbit, won’t be knocking back any paid offers either.
