Tuesday, May 03, 2016

Lining Up Talent

... for the next Space Jam.

... The Fast & Furious 6 and Star Trek Beyond helmer [Justin Lin] is co-writing, with Dodge and Botello, Warner Bros.' Space Jam 2. Lin is also looking to direct and produce via his Perfect Storm Entertainment, and sources say he will be thoroughly involved in the creative development of the project.

The WME-repped Cleveland Cavaliers forward, who recently appeared in Amy Schumer comedy Trainwreck, will star in the sequel. Rumors of a follow-up to the live-action/animated 1996 hit have been circulating for years but picked up steam in July when James and his company SpringHill Entertainment signed a deal with Warner Bros.

The first film, which earned $230.4 million worldwide, featured Michael Jordan teaming up with a collection of Looney Tunes characters to play a game of basketball against aliens threatening their freedom. ...

That first film, twenty years back in 1996, was a harried, hectic affair. The live-action shoot went well enough, except they didn't do a lot of pre-planning for the animated elements (Bugs, Daffy, etc.) and the schedule for the animation crew ... when animation finally got rolling ... was a hair-breadth short of insane. There was nine months to get everything done before the release date, and animators and assistant animators were sleeping under their desks. (This was in those happy, now-distant times when Warner Bros. actually paid overtime to animation crews).

I imagine Mr. Lin will want to pre-visualize the feature. I also imagine that Warners will desire to make the cartoon characters in CG, since CG is all the rage. But I have no idea when the picture might start production. It will likely happen when the studio gets a script that it likes. Now, at least, Space Jam 2 has a director.

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