Jim Carrey is continuing his domination with cartoon-related hits. After the successful Sonic the Hedgehog films, which have become an extremely profitable affair for Paramount Pictures, the actor is now looking to reboot a 63-year-old cartoon masterpiece.
Per Variety, Jim Carrey is in talks to lead a live-action The Jetsons movie at Warner Bros. Pictures, with Colin Trevorrow in talks to direct. The Jurassic World: Dominion filmmaker is in talks to co-write the script with Joe Epstein. There are no details about the plot.
The Willian Hanna and Joseph Barbera animated sitcom originally aired from Sept. 23, 1962, to Mar. 17, 1963, on ABC. The show was a counterpart to Hanna-Barbera’s Space Age sitcom The Flintstones.
The show later continued with Seasons 2 and 3 reboot on Syndication between 1985 and 1987. The sitcom ended with a feature animated film, Jetsons: The Movie, which premiered in 1990 to critical and commercial failure.
While the Flintstones lived in a comical version of the Stone Age, the Jetsons lived in a world filled with robots, aliens, and holograms. The series followed the Jetson family, who lived in Orbit City, led by corporate suit dad George Jetson. His wife, Jane, was a homemaker, with their posh teenage daughter, Judy, attending Orbit High School, and their younger son Elroy, going to Little Dipper School. For chores, they had robot maid Rosie.
This is hardly the first time the franchise was rebooted, and there were many attempts at a film. The first live-action attempt was in 1985, when Paramount Pictures planned to do the film with Gary Nardino as an executive producer. Adam Shankman (Rock of Ages, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Alan Ritchson’s upcoming Christmas action film The Man with the Bag) tried to take it to the big screen in 2003, as well as Robert Rodriguez (From Dusk till Dawn, Alita: Battle Angel) with a CGI version in 2007, and, most recently, with an animated attempt in 2017.
Sonic the Hedgehog Is a Billion-Dollar Franchise
Jim Carrey returns as Dr. Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.Image via Paramount Pictures
Aside from a new cartoon live-action movie, Jim Carrey has a massively successful franchise on his hands: Sonic the Hedgehog, where he plays Dr. Robotnik. Based on the Sonic video game series, the film adaptation is a live-action/ CGI hybrid that debuted in 2020 to huge success. Although originally fans denounced the animation following the first trailer, the design team accepted the feedback and made it resemble his look in the video games. It has become a massive success since.
Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has released three films so far, the latest one in 2024, and a TV limited series, Knuckles, which also came out in 2024. The film series is the fourth-highest-grossing adaptation based on video games, with $1.2 billion worldwide, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is the highest-grossing entry yet, with 492.1 million worldwide. The franchise will return with Sonic the Hedgehog 4 in 2027.
The Jetsons doesn’t have a release date yet.
George, Elroy, Judy, and Jane Jetson, as well as their dog Astro and their robotic maid Rosie, are riding in their spaceship toward an amusement park on the poster for The Jetsons.Image via Hanna-Barbera Productions
Release Date
1962 – 1962
Showrunner
William Hanna, Joseph Barbera
Writers
William Hanna, Joseph Barbera
