The Sailor Man

Guess which property is heating up once again?

Sony Pictures Animation and Arad Productions are bringing in T.J. Fixman to write Popeye, the latest adaptation of the beloved sailor man. The film is being produced by Avi Arad. It will be based on the property by King Features Syndicate, which is owned by Hearst Entertainment and Syndication. ...

The Sony Animation project is a priority for the studio with Fixman heating up around town. He has written Men Who Kill at Fox, with Michael B. Jordan (Creed) attached to produce and star in. ... Fixman was also instrumental in the creation of Insomniac Games’ Ratchet and Clank video game franchise, leading storyline development for the award-winning series. He also wrote the script for the upcoming feature film adaptation, featuring a new story based on the original trilogy of games for Playstation 2. While at Insomniac, he also led storyline development for Resistance: Fall Of Man. Fixman also has a consulting deal at Hasbro. ...

Sony has already spent a bit of money on Popeye:



Genndy Tartakovsky was deep into development of the Sailor Man a year or two ago. Sony story people I talked to at the time said management was unhappy with the way story was shaping up.

So the project was put on a high, back shelf in a musty corner of the Imageworks campus while Genndy focused on Hotel Transylvania 2, which, when released, turned into one of Sony's biggest grossers in 2015.

But now Genndy is off doing other things, and Sony has taken Popeye off that cobweb-covered shelf. With luck, pluck and elbow grease, they will get the plot-line in some kind of decent shape (the character development has long-since taken care of itself, courtesy of the brothers Fleischer) and the studio will retain Mr. Tartakovsky's visual approach, because it works well.

The only thing to do now is to wait and see. Popeye will either headline his first animated feature, or go back into hibernation.