Marvin the Martian movie in the works

[Drtooth]

http://www.variety.com/VR1117989712.html
Warner Bros. is launching development of a "Marvin the Martian" feature at Alcon Entertainment, with principals Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove producing along with Steve Crystal.

Project will blend live action and CGI.

Marvin was created by Chuck Jones and made his first appearance in a Looney Tunes cartoon in 1948. The character was often intent on blowing up the Earth, only to be foiled by Bugs Bunny.

Crystal, a former Warner exec with a first-look deal at Alcon through his Charlie Co. banner, developed the pitch as a Christmas story, with Marvin coming to Earth to destroy Christmas but being prevented from doing so when he’s trapped in a gift box. Alcon’s out to writers and directors.

Johnson and Kosove told Daily Variety that "Marvin" will be aimed at the family demo along the same lines as Alcon’s "Racing Stripes" and "My Dog Skip."

Alcon announced in May that it had raised $550 million in private funding and extended its deal at Warner, with the studio agreeing to distribute 15 Alcon pics domestically over the next five years, including the already-released pair "P.S. I Love You" and "One Missed Call" plus "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2," which opens Aug. 6.

I can't say that the plot doesn't sound cheasy... but this may finally be the decent project that Looney Tunes has been waiting for since BIA flopped and Duck Dodgers was cancelled. Baby Looney Tunes was a clear and obvious knockoff of Muppet Babies (in tone and substance) and Loonatics was trash. It wasn't even that good as an action show. It didn't have anything that everyone else didn't do a million times before.

[D'Snowth]

Cool! Marvin the Martian was always my favorite Looney Tune!

[Xerus]

Marvin's my favorite Looney Tunes character too. :) He has some of the most memorable lines.

"Oh, I'm going to blow up the Earth."

"Isn't that lovely?"

"You make me very angry. Very angry!"

[frogboy4]

My WB & Looney Tunes thoughts:

I feel that Chuck Jones was the heart of everything good with the Looney Tunes. He created Marvin the Martian, Pepe le Pew, the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote and many others. Friz Freleng and Tex Avery round that out as the other two crucial creators/animators/contributors, of course.

I grew up watching the characters on Saturday morning television (not the Baby Tunes junk, the real deal before the PC police censored the shorts) and in my teens they even showed some classic shorts before movies at AMC theaters. Tiny Toon Adventures also came along. I didn't care for the choice of focusing mush of the storylines on a younger audience and I found Babs and Buster to be virtually intolerable, but the rest was actually quite good.

Soon the characters popped up on basketball gear everywhere with Marvin trying to look ghetto-fabulous complete with scowl. Why? Just, why?

Space Jam shut Jones out. WB, the director, the producers didn't want him to have anything to do with the film even after he asked. It banked some box office, but it is a terrible film of epic proportions.

Back in Action was supposed to remedy this, but it really didn't. There are some brilliant moments in the film, but as a whole it's a cheese-fest that doesn't live up to the Looney Tunes legacy built by some very talented underpaid animators!

Lunatics Unleashed seemed like an interesting idea (a generation of Looney Tunes as Teen Titans) but it was rushed, unsatisfying and insulting to longtime fans. They should have seen that coming - and their coyote character talks. That's just wrong. The creators stood on the shoulders of brilliant artists and spat on their cherished work. They should have had some actual Looney Tunes revival along with this monstrosity to balance it out.

I'm not so sure about this Marvin movie after hearing this pitch. It appears to be just another group of people who don't understand the property. I still have hopes for Marvin. I think he's a good character to focus on. We will have to see.

[Skye]

Lol, how cute. I've always loved Marvin, too! :D

It'll be fun to see how this turns out! :)

[Ilikemuppets]

Sound like a good idea! Especial with Wall-E out!

[frogboy4]

Checking on the team behind this made me queasy. Just a bunch of kiddie flix, dudes losing their cars and Traveling Pants pictures in their past. Seriously, I now feel like Marvin is being treated like a random property rather than something special. :smirk:

[Ilikemuppets]

What do those movies have to do with him? :confused:

[frogboy4]

What do those movies have to do with him? :confused:

The list of films are ones that the producers listed in the article worked on before:

Broderick Johnson & Andrew Kosove: (producers) Lost & Found, Love Is All There Is, My Dog Skip, Dude, Where's My Car? The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, One Missed Call, P.S. I Love You, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Racing Stripes, Chasing Liberty, Love Don't Cost a Thing, Insomnia.

Steve Crystal: (producer) The Missing

Those are these guys' complete credentials to date behind the new Marvin movie. Not that impressive really. Aside from Insomnia I really don't see much value in their filmmaking. :smirk:

[Ilikemuppets]

Wow! Warner really sounds like they either just don't care or have just plain given up. I hope this guys aren't final or anything, but I don't wan to to go way over budget like Back In Action at the same time. :p

[frogboy4]

These are just the producers so who knows. Maybe they'll snag a good director that can bring this film the care it needs.

[Ilikemuppets]

Here's hoping they do.

[Oscarfan]

I love Marvin! This moive seems interesting.

[Drtooth]

Lunatics Unleashed seemed like an interesting idea (a generation of Looney Tunes as Teen Titans) but it was rushed, unsatisfying and insulting to longtime fans. They should have seen that coming - and their coyote character talks. That's just wrong. The creators stood on the shoulders of brilliant artists and spat on their cherished work. They should have had some actual Looney Tunes revival along with this monstrosity to balance it out.

I have to say, the idea of Looney Tunes characters as Super Heroes would have been a good idea, had it been satirical. They decided to play it as a straight up action show (and a derrivitive and pathetic one at that), and just thrust the character's personalities into a bunch of lame Action heroes. In season 2 they came up with the no brainer of having them fight action versions of their own villains, instead of stereotypes pulled out of every action series at the moment. Had they done this in the FIRST PLACE they would have had something.

Of course, at the Time, Warner Bros animation was in dire straights, coming up with trash ideas. The Batman and other DC properties were just popping up or coming into production. They tried to decieve the public by turning Spongebob into a Coconut, and the fish into random fruit. I still wonder why Viacom, the Youtube lawsuit happy company, didn't file copyright infringement there. Even Rob Paulsen, the voice of the Coconut in question, pretty much copied Tom Kenny's voice.

And now, Warner Bros. animation lies in ruins. Their once profitable SatAm line up has been tossed to 4Kids (who just so happened to be the ONLY ones who could catch it... more on that some other day), they stopped animating anything BUT comic fan service DC comics DTVs. A bunch of poor decisions and overall bad luck (as well as the employment of rich know nothings that expected everything to be a success in one day) doomed their fate.

And I'm not half as anxious about this project as I first was. How the heck hard is it to sell classic characters to a public that loves them? Even LT BIA was pretty good. But since it wasn't a Christmas movie (and it didn't have Will Ferrel acting like a doofus in disgustingly tight pants), it flopped at the time of year it was released. Even the disrespectful, useless Cat in the Hat movie did better. And that was widely destroyed by critics.

[anytimepally]

I hate most CGI, and I especially hate when they mix it with live action... but I love Marvin the Martian, and maybe this movie is just what we need to get Duck Dodgers on DVD

[bazooka_beak]

"This makes me VERY angry!"

Not really ;) But it seems rather random to me.

[Drtooth]

I hate most CGI, and I especially hate when they mix it with live action... but I love Marvin the Martian, and maybe this movie is just what we need to get Duck Dodgers on DVD

I sure hope so. Look how long it took them to get Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries on DVD....

I think Duck Dodgers was their last great LT project. Even more so than BIA was supposed to be. It perfectly hipped the LT characters up without making them rap, play sports, or become cliched action stars. The humor on the show was very much like Simpsons or earlier Family Guy, and it blended perfectly with the characters. But they hid it in Cartoon Network for 2 years and shoved it to Boomerang, and released both seasons of the crappy Loonitics show instead.

[Ilikemuppets]

Why do that always have to bury everyhting good! I love Duck Dodgers! Are tell afraid people will people will actually like it and buy and *Gasp* they have to live up to their standard! :eek:

[Drtooth]

Wanna hear something sad? Just before BIA, Looney Tunes was planning a series of Daffy Duck cartoons, with his personality from the original Clampett and Avery shorts in tact (different from Jones's bitter former star type). But, unfortunately, the film flopped, and the project was cancelled.

I will say this, I did enjoy BIA, but I think the best thing that came out of it were the new Neo-Clampett retro style LT designs. I liked their 90's looks (Hated their 1970's- 1980's merchandise looks, though), but it gave them a more cartoony, smooth appearance.

Too bad they only really used it on Children's clothing, greeting cards, and a meh toyline from mattel.

[Ilikemuppets]

Wanna hear something sad? Just before BIA, Looney Tunes was planning a series of Daffy Duck cartoons, with his personality from the original Clampett and Avery shorts in tact (different from Jones's bitter former star type). But, unfortunately, the film flopped, and the project was cancelled.I really liked Back In Action and own the movie, but to many producers and suits tinkered with with and it went way over budget as a result. But it would have been great if things went ahead as planned. :p