With Peanuts looking better with every new trailer, Warner Bros. is plotting a feature-length return for another classic cartoon – Hanna-Barbera series The Jetsons.
Hoping to transform the beloved show, about a family living in a futuristic utopia filled with fantastical technology, into an animated theatrical feature, the studio has hired Matt Lieberman to pen a script. Word is that Warner Bros. was impressed with Lieberman’s work on an animated Scooby-Doo project that it is putting together, and that’s what landed him this gig.
Lieberman, who honed his skills in the Disney Writers Program, has been everywhere in Hollywood recently. He penned spec script 12/24, a found-footage Santa Claus movie that 1492 scooped up; another spec called The Pet, which Disney has set Napoleon Dynamite helmer Jared Hess to direct; Paramount Animation’s Giant Monsters Attack Japan; sci-fi Short Circuit, which Alvin and the Chipmunks director Tim Hill has signed on to helm; Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride for Peter Candeland to direct; and Evil Genius for Disney.
Given that impressive array of projects, there’s no reason to think that Lieberman won’t deliver a solid take on The Jetsons, retaining the retro feel of the original series while updating its humor for modern audiences. Animation has come far enough that there could be a visually stunning and highly entertaining version of The Jetsons for Warner Bros. to make, so long as it doesn’t skimp on the budget and deliver something with unappealing CGI (like Yogi Bear). Then again, the project has been in the works for over a decade, with dozens of different writers attached at various points, so it’s entirely possible that we’ll be hearing about a different scribe taking a swing at it a few months from now. Fingers crossed that Lieberman’s version is the one to finally get a stamp of approval for Warner Bros.
