A classic since the days of Saturday morning cartoons, the Looney Tunes is making its way from the small screen to the silver screen in a soon-to-be-released feature film with a twist.
While the film doesn’t have an absolutely definitive title at this point (at least not one that has been made known to the public), it is being referred to as The ACME Movie, named after the company made famous for turning Wile E. Coyote’s harebrained schemes into hilarious failures. The Looney Tunes have always been known for their distinctive look; the off-kilter scenery, the funky color schemes, and the trademark slapstick animation, but in this big-screen adaptation, things are taking a turn for the three dimensional.
Producers of the early 2014 hit The Lego Movie, Dan Lin and Roy Lee, plan to use a combination of 3-D animation and live action techniques to put a new spin on things, but the spins just keep coming. “We’re not going to use Looney Tunes in the ACME movie,” says Lin. “What we’re so excited about is the lead character is a Steve Jobs meets Dean Cameron kind of character and because it’s ACME you can create some incredibly funny, wacky inventions that you can’t do on any other movie” (via geektyrant).
While some new faces may be making their way onto the screen, the voices behind them may be coming from some more familiar places, like comedic genius Steve Carell who has been brought aboard the project. The A-list cast and crew continues with writers Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz of X-Men: First Class and Thor, and potential directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who happened to direct Carell in Crazy, Stupid Love.
The project has been in progress since its conception in 2010, and I’m sure Warner Bros. Animation is just as excited to see it take flight as the rest of us are. While reinventing the classics is always a risky move, the Looney Tunes’ legacy is clearly in good, if not great hands. With such timeless inspiration to pull from, I personally can’t wait to see what they come up with, but until then…
“Th-th-th-th-that’s all folks!”
(Come on, like it was even an option not to end a Looney Tunes article that way.)
