Sunday, September 06, 2015

Back In Viacom-Owned-Characters Land

Time to exploit the catalogue.

... Nickelodeon cartoon series of the ’90s are making a return in the biggest way possible.

Sources exclusively confirm to The Tracking Board that Paramount Pictures is in the early stages of developing a massive live-action/animated crossover film featuring characters from hit ’90s Nick cartoons.

Rugrats, Angry Beavers, Hey Arnold!, Rocko’s Modern Life, Ren and Stimpy, and more are coming together for what’s being pitched as a Justice League or Avenger’s-esque team-up film called NICKTOONS. ...

Paramount is currently in discussions with different writers, looking for the perfect scribe to tackle a project balancing such immensely beloved properties. ...

And the beauty of it? Viacom doesn't have to go and negotiate rights with Disney, Warners, Universal (etc.) because the conglomerate will be using characters it already controls.

The ugliness is, these live action-animated cavalcades don't always hit a home-run. Or even a double. For every Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Space Jam, there is a Cool World (Brad Pitt be damned) and Back in Action.

So we extend best wishes and Happy Box Office to our friends at Nick/Paramount/Fleischer Studios, Inc. And may the feature you're now contemplating make five times its production budget, and may the marketing of related merchandising go on until 2067.

At least.

3 comments:

Alex Dudley said...

Mr. Hullet, can you confirm that this film is in development, and it's not some clickbait article harping on nostalgia to get more views by reading off someone's fanfic?

Steve Hulett said...

The story is getting circulated. I could run over to Paramount and see if this thing is in development, but let's get real here. The fact that somebody may be writing a script for a hybrid production doesn't mean a production will get greenlit. It means that some work somewhere is going on.

Popeye at Sony Pictures Animation has been put touted for a while, but my sources say it's in deep freeze, even though not officially cancelled. That mean it won't get made at some point? Nope. But nothing much is happening now.

Understand that "in development" means way less than "in production." There are always a plethora of projects that are still-born. It's the way the business works.

Chris Sobieniak said...

Such a shame too, and I sorta liked what they were trying to do with Popeye here.

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