Chris McKay, who directed ‘The LEGO Batman Movie’ has signed on to helm a film version of ‘Jonny Quest’, for Warner Brothers. McKay had been attached to direct another superhero movie for the studio, ‘Nightwing,’ but it looks as though that film has been put on hold. ‘Jonny Quest’ might be a ways off, as McKay’s next project looks to be Paramount’s ‘Dungeons & Dragons’.
First introduced on a prime-time animated series in 1964, ‘Jonny Quest’ was Hanna-Barbera’s first action-adventure program. The original show, partially created by comic book artist Doug Wildey, followed the globe-trotting adventures of young teen Jonny Quest, his scientist father, Doctor Benton Quest, former secret agent/bodyguard Race Bannon, Hadji, a quasi-mystical Indian boy that Dr. Quest adopts and their mischievous dog Bandit. The original batch of shows is considered a classic and has been updated, first in the mid-1980s on ‘The New Adventures of Jonny Quest’, followed in the early ’90s by ‘The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest’ which employed the new technology of computer animation. A live action movie was planned to spin-off from ‘The Real Adventures…’ but because the show failed, those plans were scrapped. The newer episodes added a female character, Race’s long lost daughter Jessie.
In addition to the various cartoons, Jonny and his supporting cast were part of DC Comics’ recent acclaimed hit series ‘Future Quest’, which also featured classic Hanna-Barbera action heroes like Space Ghost, the Herculoids, and Birdman. Perhaps ‘Jonny Quest”s biggest impact on pop culture was as the inspiration for Christopher McCulloch’s long-running Adult Swim series ‘The Venture Brothers’.
The film will be produced by Rideback’s Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich along with Adrian Askarieh of Prime Universe with Daniel Alter executive producing.
The ‘Jonny Quest’ live action film has been languishing in development hell for years now. Robert Rodriguez was signed on to direct at one point, with subsequent names like Joe Cornish, Justin Lin and Scott Derrickson mentioned at times. In 2009, Zac Efron was reportedly cast as Jonny, with Dwayne Johnson playing Race. Other actors that have been rumored to be considered for that role have been Idris Elba, Bradley Cooper and Will Smith.
Warner Brothers is still, reportedly, looking for a big name for the part of Race.
Any suggestions?
Source: The Wrap
