Robert Zemeckis has recently returned to live-action filmmaking with Flight, and though he doesn’t have any plans to return to 100% motion capture filmmaking, it looks like Zemeckis is eager to apply what he learned from his motion capture work to a sequel to one of his most beloved films, 1989’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Who Framed Roger Rabbit was more than just a giant breakthrough for combined animation/live-action filmmaking, but brilliantly united almost every classic cartoon character on film, including the only time you’ll ever see Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse trading quips.
In an interview with MTV, Zemeckis reveals that he is interested in converting the original Roger Rabbit to 3D, noting that the animated elements would look fantastic in an extra dimension (and imagine Jessica Rabbit in 3D, boys). But the bigger news is that Zemeckis has gotten the ball rolling on the long-delayed Roger Rabbit sequel. He says:
I’m happy with the script. It’s very good. It’s written by the original writers, and it’s good. [But Disney] is still thinking about it. If I were to do the sequel, it would be done just like the first one. It would look the same way, but we would present it in 3-D in its release. I would do all of the animation hand-drawn; 2-D, but using 3-D tools. It wouldn’t be like Pixar 3-D. It wouldn’t look like that.
This would not be the long-planned prequel, Toon Platoon, which puts the toons smack in the middle of World War II (recalling those classic — if considered insensitive — propaganda cartoons put out during the war) or the prequel which told the story of Roger’s rise through vaudeville (which Alan Menken wrote five songs for). Those scripts weren’t by the original writers, Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman, who started penning their own sequel a year or so ago.
Unfortunately, the sequel/prequel/whatever wouldn’t likely star Bob Hoskins, who retired from acting earlier this year after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Still, I always thought it was a shame Disney didn’t do more with Roger Rabbit — I think a sequel (as long as it’s a good one) is long overdue.
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