Kanye West still believes he’s the “creative director” on an in-development Jetsons movie. Still.
If you don’t recall, I’ll try to catch you up. West, an award-winning rapper/songwriter, engaged in an EPIC Twitter tirade back in January 2012 where he claimed, among several other things, that he was asked to be a creative consultant on a Jetsons movie. Nothing really came of it, though in February of that same year, co-writers Van Robichaux and Evan Susser were hired by Warner Bros. to rewrite an existing treatment for a live-action movie based on the classic cartoon.
Then? Nothing. Until West – while promoting his new album Yeezus -- dropped, once again, the fact that he’s the creative director on a Jetsons movie to W magazine. No official quote. No elaboration. Just West taking phone calls regarding the mysterious project while he and journalist Christopher Bagley weave through Parisian traffic en route to Le Corbusier’s iconic Villa Savoye, a museum located outside the French city.
As you do.
We still have no idea why West would be interested in a Jetsons movie, or why Warner would have him on as a creative director. At this point, it feels like a running joke West keeps floating out to the media to see how long they’ll keep the story going. Is there something in the Jetsons’ jazzy, show-tuney theme song that catches West’s ear?
Then again, this potential Jetsons movie ALWAYS had the makings of being a strange adaptation of a classic cartoon. Back in the day, Robert Rodriguez wanted to make a Jetsons movie. Now try to imagine Rose McGowan or Salma Hayek as “Jane, his wife!”
Warner Bros. has had some success converting vintage animated series to live-action hits, most notably with the Scooby-Doo movie from 2002.
Then again, there were two Flinstones movies, and the less we talk about them, the better. Still, when Warner sees Sony Pictures Animation collecting nearly $565 million in worldwide ticket sales on The Smurfs and then starting to start work on Popeye, you can begin to understand why they’d be hot to get Kanye West – or anyone, for that matter – hard at work on a Jetsons movie, because the potential to franchise nostalgia runs high.
