JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions To Develop Samurai Jack Film for Big Screen

By Kevin Coll • November 25, 2009 • View Comments

Frederator Films blog (via Firstshowing) had an article earlier this week regarding Samurai Jack, the popular series from Cartoon Network. According to the article there was plans for an animated feature for the film as well as a live-action version. The rights were then in the hands of New Line Cinema. Now it seems as if they have landed into the nice well kept hands of JJ Abrams. Abrams is apparently developing a feature animated movie that will combine traditional 2D animation with stereoscopic 3D. Sorry, it’s not live-action.

In the article we were told Frederator Films has been granted rights as well. Fred Seibert, former head of Hanna-Barbera and current head of Frederator Films had been granted the rights to an animated movie “as long as we agreed that Genndy would be intimately involved.” Genndy Tartakovsky is the creator of Samurai Jack.

Genndy got on-board after a lunch meeting. “Here was the chance to finish what he’d started, and reclaim a special set of characters he’d created.” The deals took forever to close, but in the end they got J.J. Abrams, a “huge Jack fan”, to help co-produce via his Bad Robot along with producing partner Bryan Burk.

I am not a fan of the series but i know a lot of Jack fans who will be excited to read the news. Its all very early in development though.

Samurai Jack is a 4-time Emmy award-winning American animated television series created by animator Genndy Tartakovsky that aired on Cartoon Network from 2001 until 2004. It is noted for its highly detailed, outline-free, masking-based animation, as well as for its cinematic style and pacing.

The plots of individual episodes range from dark and epic to light-hearted and comic, but typically follow Jack in his singular quest to find a method of traveling back in time. Many of the battle scenes in the series are reminiscent of samurai films, and since Jack’s robotic enemies “bleed” oil or electricity and monsters/aliens bleed slime or goo, the series is able to exhibit the action of these films while avoiding censorship for violence.

About the Author

Kevin Coll

Kevin is a film freak, just ask him something movie related and he lights up like a Christmas tree. Originally his destiny was to go to film school, hit LA and try and become the next big thing. Circumstances change but in college, he fell in love with writing. After several failed attempts in starting a legit and hip school online magazine for his university Kevin moved into the blogosphere for himself and began Kevin’s Rant which in 2007 morphed into Fused Film. Kevin has contributed articles on other sites like Geeks of Doom and FilmShaft, he has also been a guest on podcasts for MovieViral and The Film Feed at FS.Net. His favorite movie of all time is Empire Strikes Back, he loves his Chucks, he is an avid Stargate fan and classic rock is his music scene. Email him at: kcoll@fusedfilm.com Follow His Twitter: FusedFilm