Sci-Fi Film and Television Developments

The Jetsons

8/13/09 – SCI FI Wire reported that director Robert Rodriguez briefly discussed a few of the upcoming films he's involved with.  Rodriguez said things were moving forward on Predators, the reboot/prequel film, which he's producing. Specifically, he said that he's loaned out his Austin, Texas, studio and crew to help breathe new life into the franchise. "I have a director on that [Nimród Antal], and it's my main crew that I usually use," he said. "It's taking place right there, so I get to walk in and see designs and comment on stuff and work on the script with him. We start shooting that pretty soon."  Another long-gestating project Rodriguez is attached to is Sin City 2, which he said is on the back burner and which lacks at least one important element. "Until I'm actually on the set, it's not happening," he confessed. "But we have a script—we just haven't shot it yet."  The recently announced futuristic sci-fi thriller Nervewrackers, which was originally scheduled for release April 16, 2010, was moved back. Rodriguez said that he hasn't forgotten about it. "That would be next year sometime," Rodriguez said. "I have a script for that." Finally, Rodriguez offered a few details about his proposed Jetsons live-action update, saying that he wouldn't render its futuristic world in the same way he did something equally far-out, like Sin City. "It would have to be a mix," he said. "It wouldn't be all green screen."

6/10/09 - Robert Rodriguez told MTV.com that his proposed live-action Jetsons movie may go before cameras next year.  "I've been developing The Jetsons for a while," Rodriguez said, adding that he's hoping to start shooting "next year."  While the director did confirm that the film would be live-action, he was predictably mum about other details. Adam F. Goldberg wrote an early draft of the script, but it has since been reworked.  "We're writing the script right now," Rodriguez said.

3/20/09 - Producer Donald De Line told Dark Horizons that a live-action movie based on the 1960s animated TV series The Jetsons is still a go. The movie was first announced in May of 2007.  "In fact, Robert Rodriguez, who lives right here in Austin, has done a great draft of the script, and we're all talking with Warners right now about getting that together," De Line said.  The original incarnation of the half-hour Hanna-Barbera show, about an American nuclear family in a fantasized jet-age future, aired Sunday nights on ABC from Sept. 23, 1962, to March 3, 1963.

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