Warner Bros. are set to remake ‘Tom and Jerry’ and ‘Scooby Doo’ next year.
The beloved Hanna-Barbera animated productions are getting a revamp as Warner and Warner Animation Group (WAG) have recruited Chris Colombus – who has previously directed ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Pixels’ – for a ‘Scooby Doo’ adaptation and ‘Fantastic Four’ filmmaker, Tim Story, to join their ‘Tom and Jerry’ team.
Warner will join forces between their animated department and hybrid pictures to shoot everyone’s favourite cat and mouse duo, and sources have revealed that Warner Bros will stick to the cartoon’s successful slapstick style and keep the characters mute.
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‘Tom and Jerry’ will start shooting in 2019 and the untitled ‘Scooby-Doo’ project is due to arrive in theatres in the first quarter of 2020, Variety magazine reports.
The other major live-action sequel that’s expected to hit theatres next year is a ‘Space Jam’ sequel featuring NBA basketball player LeBron James.
The professional basketball player will star in the hotly-anticipated Warner Bros. movie and he is delighted to be working with the ‘Black Panther’ director Ryan Coogler on the project.
He said: “The ‘Space Jam’ collaboration is so much more than just me and the Looney Tunes getting together and doing this movie. It’s so much bigger. I’d just love for kids to understand how empowered they can feel and how empowered they can be if they don’t just give up on their dreams. And I think Ryan did that for a lot of people.”
Terence Nance will direct the motion picture, which is expected to be released next year, and Justin Lin – who was initially directing the film but pulled out – will remain on board as executive producer. The original ‘Space Jam’ film saw Michael Jordan team up with Bugs Bunny and the rest of the ‘Looney Tunes’ cartoon characters to play a game of basketball to save them from enslavement at an alien amusement park.
Bang Showbiz
