They're more serious about animation than they used to be.
Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes spinoff film is finally making some progress after spending years in development. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio has officially brought on X-Men: First Class scribes Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz to write the script and is working on filling the rest of the team.
In addition to hiring the writing duo to pen the still-untitled Acme film, the studio is reportedly in early negotiations with Crazy Stupid Love directors Glen Ficarra and John Requa to helm the project. As for possible cast members, Steve Carell (who also starred in Crazy Stupid Love) is reportedly attached to lead the project. ...
Warner Bros. has had a spotty record with cartoons.
The company failed to re-copyright a bunch of its classic forties shorts, so they're now public domain. (This has never happened to the ever-vigilant Diz Co.) Warners jumped into hand-drawn animated features during the nineties, and fell on its face, losing millions. Even the Iron Giant, now considered a masterpiece, tanked.
In the go-go nineties, the only area where the WB was competitive was in its television animation divisions. Warner Bros. Animation churned out hit after hit, and its direct-to-video operation turned a tidy profit. Now, however, the distribution gods have smiled on the big corporation and gifted it with The Lego Movie, one of the year's top domestic grossers. Warners is excited about Acme because ...
... Kevin and Dan Hageman (writers of The Lego Movie) sold the original pitch. ...
And nothing, absolutely nothing, puts a gleam in a front-office exec's eye like a blockbuster derived from a small-budget animated feature.
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