Bob Hoskins talks WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT sequel, and never-before-seen 1998 test footage

Bob Hoskins talks WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT sequel, and never-before-seen 1998 test footage

Were you a fan of WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?  I was.  Still am actually.  Being one of those guys who holds on to fond memories of traditional animation, and the good ol’ days before the CGI invasion took over, I’ve always maintained that ROGER RABBIT was one of the last great films from the late-20th century film era.  It mixed live action actors and backgrounds with intricately drawn cel animation, effectively transporting the hero Eddie Valiant (played by the alway great Bob Hoskins) into the world of “Toons” – some of whom were good, and some of whom… weren’t.  It also borrowed from classic detective films of yesteryear, utilizing its 1950’s setting very well.  It was also the first time we saw many of these classic cartoon characters from Walt Disney and Warner Brothers interacting for the first time, and there’s something very cool about that.  Since the film came out, and was rather successful, Disney gave us a few Roger Rabbit shorts here and there, as lead ins to some of their bigger films in the 1990’s, but the long-awaited sequel never seemed to gain any momentum past infrequent interview mentions.  It seemed as if director Robert Zemeckis was on board with the idea of doing a follow-up, but his focus changed considerably, and in recent years he’s become (rather annoyingly to some) obsessed with doing motion capture animated films.  While these films have had box office success, many feel the characters in them are fairly lifeless and dead-eyed.  It’s hard to really get into what you’re seeing, past the high quality of the animation itself.

Well, we may finally get that sequel to ROGER RABBIT, but in the most unappealing way possible.  According to the first film’s leading man Bob Hoskins, Zemeckis wants to do a second installment using… motion capture.  Damn.  While I enjoyed the spectacle of BEOWULF, I was utterly turned off by THE POLAR EXPRESS and A CHRISTMAS CAROL.  This means that Eddie Valiant would be done using mo-cap, so while Hoskins’ voice would be there, he (in essence) would not.  All of the other humans on screen would be done the same way.

Apparently, according to the HeyUGuys’ Twitter feed, Hoskins was quoted to say:

Zemekis said he’s going to do it like a Christmas Carol, but I’m 67 years old! I’ll look like a cartoon at that point! If they do it, I’m in!’

And now for the second part of this report.  The folks at Cartoon Brew stumbled on the following piece of video from 1998, which highlights some test CGI footage for a ROGER RABBIT 2 pitch.  This is what Roger could have ended up looking like had a sequel happened back then:

Now while that’s certainly not as bad as it could have been, and considering we’ve come a long way in 12 years time, I guess there may still be hope for a CGI Roger.  But before you get too excited, remember how cold and un-fluidlike those CGI Robert Zemeckis movie characters seemed in THE POLAR EXPRESS and A CHRISTMAS CAROL?  Now picture that treatment on Bob Hoskins… or Jessica Rabbit… yeah, suddenly not so exciting.  While someone like me would wish they’d just stick to their original formula, and mix live action with traditional animation, you and I both know Hollywood (and more importantly Robert Zemeckis) will never go for that.  WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT 2 is being penned by the first film’s writers Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman (who also wrote SHREK THE THIRD).  As for Zemeckis?  He’s currently in the process of destroying… I mean remaking YELLOW SUBMARINE with the motion capture technology, so Roger may still be a way off.  Do you think anyone has ever had the guts to tell Zemeckis that NO ONE likes the look of these mo-cap films?  Would anyone dare?  The guy was always a great live-action director… if only he’d go back to that.

Source: Screenrant and BleedingCool

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About the Author

Born and raised in Dallas, Mark has been a movie critic since 1994, with reviews featured in print, radio and National TV. In 2001 he started the Entertainment section of the Herorealm website, where he contributed film reviews and celebrity interviews until 2004. After three years of service there, he started Bigfanboy.com, which has become one of the Dallas film community's leading information websites. Bigfanboy hosts several movie screenings in the Texas area, and works closely with film and TV studios and promotional partners to host exciting events and contests. The site also features a variety of rare celebrity and filmmaker interviews, and Bigfanboy.com regularly covers the film festival circuit as well. In addition to Hollywood reporting, Mark has worked for many years as an advertising and sci-fi/comic book artist. Clients have included Lucasfilm Ltd., Topps Trading Cards, The Dallas Mavericks and The Dallas Stars. From 2002 until 2015 he managed the Dallas Comic Con, Sci-Fi Expo and Fan Days events in the DFW area. He currently catalogs rare comic books and movie memorabilia for Heritage Auctions, and runs the Dallas Comic Show conventions, but remains an avid moviegoer and cinema buff.