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Brendan Fraser and New shorts update
Fraser in action with Warners on 'Looney' feature
Tue Jun 11, 2:36 AM ET
Cynthia Littleton and Zorianna Kit
LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) --- Brendan Fraser has been tapped to star alongside Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and other Termite Terrace contract players in Warner Bros. Pictures' live-action/animated feature "Looney Tunes: Back in Action," directed by Joe Dante.
In addition, the studio has committed to producing a series of Looney Tunes shorts that will run in theaters in tandem with high-profile Warners releases. The Warner Bros. Animation unit, headed by president Sander Schwartz, is also producing a new "Baby Looney Tunes" series to premiere this fall on Cartoon Network.
The push to revive the Looney Tunes franchise has been a big part of the expansion of the Warner Bros. Animation unit during the past 18 months since Schwartz signed on as president. The division, which will produce the animation for "Looney Tunes: Back in Action," has stepped up its output with new animated series for the Kids' WB! service; direct-to-video productions, including a fresh "Scooby-Doo" adventure; and more Looney Tunes shorts for the studio's looneytunes.com Web site.
Production on "Looney Tunes: Back in Action" is set to begin July 29 in Southern California and Las Vegas for a November 2003 release. The movie, set in a live-action world in which animated and real characters interact, begins on a studio backlot in Hollywood as the celluloid heroes embark on a comic adventure that takes them from Las Vegas to the jungles of Africa in search of Fraser's character's missing father and a mythical blue diamond.
Larry Doyle wrote the script, which is being produced by Bernie Goldmann and executive produced by Chris DeFaria and Doyle.
"The Looney Tunes are a perfect example of stylish wit that never dates itself," Warner Bros. Pictures president of worldwide production Lorenzo di Bonaventura said. "We're really pleased to welcome Brendan Fraser, with his terrific comedic timing and gift for physical comedy, to the Looney Tunes fold. And it's great to have this series of opportunities to bring Bugs, Daffy and Co. to theatrical audiences in both feature-length and short stories that highlight the humor, action and imagery that made these characters famous."
As for theatrical shorts, the series now in the works will mark the first time since 1961 that the studio has had an in-house division dedicated to Looney Tunes production. Legendary animator Chuck Jones supervised the production of a handful of animated shorts during the past dozen years, including 1990's "Box Office Bunny" and 2000's "Little Go Beep," but those were handled largely outside the studio by Jones and did not receive the promotional and marketing support that the studio plans for the current Looney Tunes initiative.
"It's an exciting and almost frightening thing for us to be working on Looney Tunes," Schwartz said. "The classics are still so popular on TV and through merchandising. The key for us is going to be maintaining the level of writing and wit and timing and all the elements that have made the (Looney Tunes) characters last for so many years."
To handle the increased workload, Warner Bros. Animation has expanded its staff to nearly 400 employees this year, compared with less than 200 in March 2001 when Schwartz joined the studio after a successful stint as head of Columbia TriStar TV's animation unit. Warner Bros. Animation has benefited from the cutbacks in local employment of animators made in recent months by the Walt Disney Co. and Viacom's Nickelodeon. The 21st century version of Termite Terrace is a large complex in Sherman Oaks that was once home to a Robinsons-May department store.
"We've been able to get some really great people. You can only get great product if you have really talented people," Schwartz said.
And Looney Tunes isn't the only archival project that Warner Bros. Animation has its eye on. There's a wealth of characters to be revisited from the Warner Bros.-owned DC Comics library, Schwartz noted.
"There are several thousand characters in the DC library -- many we know, and many we don't know," Schwartz said. "They're just ripe for development."
Not surprisingly, Warner Bros. Animation also is involved in the studio's push to resurrect "Scooby-Doo." It helped provide much of the animation featured in the film that opens this weekend, and it is also producing two feature-length direct-to-video "Scooby-Doo" titles, plus the "What's New Scooby-Doo" series for Kids' WB!
But as much as it looks to the past for inspiration, Warner Bros. Animation also is developing a slew of original properties for the Kids' WB! and Cartoon Network outlets. Among the series in the hopper for Kids' WB! this fall are "Mucha Lucha," a wacky comedy revolving around Mexican pro wrestling, and "Ozzy & Drix," a buddy-cop comedy based on offbeat characters from the studio's 2001 animated feature "Osmosis Jones."
"We've had a tremendous partnership between Kids' WB! and the (Warner Bros. Animation) studio," said Kids' WB! executive vp Donna Friedman, who worked with Schwartz on several shows during his previous tenure at Columbia TriStar. "Sander's coming to the studio brought a whole new energy and spirit to the production. He's got a clear understanding of the kind of diverse, character-driven shows that have made us No. 1 with kids. 'Scooby-Doo,' 'Mucha Lucha' and 'Ozzy & Drix' are all very distinct in their own right, and we're very proud of them."
Fraser in action with Warners on 'Looney' feature
Tue Jun 11, 2:36 AM ET
Cynthia Littleton and Zorianna Kit
LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) --- Brendan Fraser has been tapped to star alongside Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and other Termite Terrace contract players in Warner Bros. Pictures' live-action/animated feature "Looney Tunes: Back in Action," directed by Joe Dante.
In addition, the studio has committed to producing a series of Looney Tunes shorts that will run in theaters in tandem with high-profile Warners releases. The Warner Bros. Animation unit, headed by president Sander Schwartz, is also producing a new "Baby Looney Tunes" series to premiere this fall on Cartoon Network.
The push to revive the Looney Tunes franchise has been a big part of the expansion of the Warner Bros. Animation unit during the past 18 months since Schwartz signed on as president. The division, which will produce the animation for "Looney Tunes: Back in Action," has stepped up its output with new animated series for the Kids' WB! service; direct-to-video productions, including a fresh "Scooby-Doo" adventure; and more Looney Tunes shorts for the studio's looneytunes.com Web site.
Production on "Looney Tunes: Back in Action" is set to begin July 29 in Southern California and Las Vegas for a November 2003 release. The movie, set in a live-action world in which animated and real characters interact, begins on a studio backlot in Hollywood as the celluloid heroes embark on a comic adventure that takes them from Las Vegas to the jungles of Africa in search of Fraser's character's missing father and a mythical blue diamond.
Larry Doyle wrote the script, which is being produced by Bernie Goldmann and executive produced by Chris DeFaria and Doyle.
"The Looney Tunes are a perfect example of stylish wit that never dates itself," Warner Bros. Pictures president of worldwide production Lorenzo di Bonaventura said. "We're really pleased to welcome Brendan Fraser, with his terrific comedic timing and gift for physical comedy, to the Looney Tunes fold. And it's great to have this series of opportunities to bring Bugs, Daffy and Co. to theatrical audiences in both feature-length and short stories that highlight the humor, action and imagery that made these characters famous."
As for theatrical shorts, the series now in the works will mark the first time since 1961 that the studio has had an in-house division dedicated to Looney Tunes production. Legendary animator Chuck Jones supervised the production of a handful of animated shorts during the past dozen years, including 1990's "Box Office Bunny" and 2000's "Little Go Beep," but those were handled largely outside the studio by Jones and did not receive the promotional and marketing support that the studio plans for the current Looney Tunes initiative.
"It's an exciting and almost frightening thing for us to be working on Looney Tunes," Schwartz said. "The classics are still so popular on TV and through merchandising. The key for us is going to be maintaining the level of writing and wit and timing and all the elements that have made the (Looney Tunes) characters last for so many years."
To handle the increased workload, Warner Bros. Animation has expanded its staff to nearly 400 employees this year, compared with less than 200 in March 2001 when Schwartz joined the studio after a successful stint as head of Columbia TriStar TV's animation unit. Warner Bros. Animation has benefited from the cutbacks in local employment of animators made in recent months by the Walt Disney Co. and Viacom's Nickelodeon. The 21st century version of Termite Terrace is a large complex in Sherman Oaks that was once home to a Robinsons-May department store.
"We've been able to get some really great people. You can only get great product if you have really talented people," Schwartz said.
And Looney Tunes isn't the only archival project that Warner Bros. Animation has its eye on. There's a wealth of characters to be revisited from the Warner Bros.-owned DC Comics library, Schwartz noted.
"There are several thousand characters in the DC library -- many we know, and many we don't know," Schwartz said. "They're just ripe for development."
Not surprisingly, Warner Bros. Animation also is involved in the studio's push to resurrect "Scooby-Doo." It helped provide much of the animation featured in the film that opens this weekend, and it is also producing two feature-length direct-to-video "Scooby-Doo" titles, plus the "What's New Scooby-Doo" series for Kids' WB!
But as much as it looks to the past for inspiration, Warner Bros. Animation also is developing a slew of original properties for the Kids' WB! and Cartoon Network outlets. Among the series in the hopper for Kids' WB! this fall are "Mucha Lucha," a wacky comedy revolving around Mexican pro wrestling, and "Ozzy & Drix," a buddy-cop comedy based on offbeat characters from the studio's 2001 animated feature "Osmosis Jones."
"We've had a tremendous partnership between Kids' WB! and the (Warner Bros. Animation) studio," said Kids' WB! executive vp Donna Friedman, who worked with Schwartz on several shows during his previous tenure at Columbia TriStar. "Sander's coming to the studio brought a whole new energy and spirit to the production. He's got a clear understanding of the kind of diverse, character-driven shows that have made us No. 1 with kids. 'Scooby-Doo,' 'Mucha Lucha' and 'Ozzy & Drix' are all very distinct in their own right, and we're very proud of them."
