Following on his hugely disappointing box office return for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, director Robert Rodriguez will be hoping to land another hit with his next adventure project.
THR reports that the Desperado filmmaker has signed on to co-write and direct Warner Bros’ long-gestating Jonny Quest big-screen adventure, co-writing it with Pirates of the Caribbean stalwart scribe Terry Rossio. They are updating an original Black List draft by Dan Mazeau (Wrath of the Titans), with the aim to start a new big franchise.
The fondly-remembered 1960s Hanna-Barbera ABC television cartoon followed the adventures of the titular hero who accompanied his father on globe-trotting escapades, featuring everything from robots to mummies to secret marine bases. He was accompanied on them by the likes of his pet bulldog Bandit; his best friend Hadji, a Calcutta orphan; and a government agent/bodyguard named Race Bannon. The expensive-to-produce series only lasted a season before being cancelled but syndication kept it successful in subsequent years, as did comic and cartoon revivals.
A big-screen version had Richard Donner and Lauren Schuler Donner attached at one point, and when this new iteration was greenlit back in 2010 it had Zac Efron attached in the lead role and Dwayne Johnson as Bannon, with 50 First Dates’ Peter Segal linked as director. There’s no mention of any of their involvements five years on but it would certainly increase its chances of box office success if they nabbed The Rock for a key role considering how massively popular he has become in the last few years.
Those who know and love Rodriguez for his more violent fare like Sin City, Machete and Desperado might think it strange he’d join this kind of project but let’s not forget that the director has also had a successful career at making more child-friendly movies, namely with the four movie-strong Spy Kids franchise.
Source: THR