Former 'SNL' Star to Write 'Looney Tunes' Reboot Film (Exclusive)
The film will be produced by "Harry Potter" producer David Heyman, along with David Katzenberg and "Dark Shadows" scribe Seth Grahame-Smith.
“Back in Action” was the subtitle of a Looney Tunes movie that was released in 2003, but back in action is one way to describe the reboot that Warner Bros. is putting together.
Former Saturday Night Live cast member Jenny Slate has been hired to pen the script for what is intended to be a hybrid live-action/CG film.
David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith of KatzSmith, the latter of whom penned the script to Warners’ Dark Shadows, are on board to produce along with Harry Potter producer David Heyman and his Heyday Films president Jeffrey Clifford.
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Looney Tunes, of course, is the name of the classic Warner Bros. cartoon shorts that began in the 1930s and feature such beloved animated characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Wile E. Coyote, Tweety Bird and a host of others.
In 1996, the studio revived the brand with Space Jam, a live-action/cartoon featured produced by Montecito that featured Michael Jordan and other actors mixing it up with the Looney Tunes characters. The movie grossed $90 million domestically and $230 million worldwide.
Looney Tunes: Back in Action, a sequel of sorts, starred Brendan Fraser and made only $20 million domestically, $68 million worldwide.
Details of Slate’s take are being kept under wraps.
Warners-based KatzSmith is developing a Beetlejuice sequel as well as an adaptation of Maggie Stiefvater’s novel The Scorpio Races.
Heyman is developing a Paddington Bear feature and has Gravity, a sci-fi drama starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney and directed by Alfonso Cuaron, due out next year.
Slate has appeared in various comedic capacities on VH1 and Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and was a castmember on Saturday Night Live for the 2009-10 season. She also voiced characters in Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.
She made a big splash co-writing and co-voicing a stop-motion short titled Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, which went viral online and garnered more than 18 million views on YouTube. The success led to a Marcel the Shell book deal.
Slate is repped by WME, 3 Arts Entertainment, and Gray Krauss.
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