J.J. Abrams, Genndy Tartakovsky & Samurai Jack

[Gabriel]

From the Frederator blog: Lunch with Genndy. September 5th, 2009

As we zeroed in on how Frederator Films would approach animated feature filmmaking (D’oh! Put the talent first, the same way we did in TV!) I started hanging with the best talent we knew. And, at the head of the list was Genndy Tartakovsky.

That was a pretty easy decision. I was president of Hanna-Barbera when Genndy came to the studio as a key member of Donovan Cook’s 2 Stupid Dogs team. I greenlit his first Dexter’s Laboratory short, and he delivered one of the great cartoons in recent history. Then there was the DL series, also one of the greats. Samurai Jack and Clone Wars were after my time, but I watched Genndy grow as a filmmaker from afar, and I remembered Genndy as one of the best people I’d worked with in my entire career. Talented, smart, dedicated, relentless, amazing leader, moral, and fun. What a rare guy.

I set up the lunch with no expectations. After all, Genndy had just come out of a multi-year relationship with George Lucas, and had set up The Orphanage Animation Studios to develop his own feature films; what could Frederator offer him at this point? But, on the way I realized there was an opportunity. I immediately called Jim Samples, then-President of Cartoon Network, and right away he agreed to a first in the network’s history, granting of rights to an independent production company. They would grant Frederator Studios the animated movie rights to the hit TV series Samurai Jack, as long as we agreed that Genndy would be intimately involved. Agree?!!! How else could we be interested?

Genndy was thrilled when I delivered the news. He’d been disappointed that CN and New Line Cinema had abandoned the project (both animated and live action films) and felt he’d let his fans down. Here was the chance to finish what he’d started, and reclaim a special set of characters he’d created.

Without going into all the details, the deals took forever (forever!) to close (in fact, some of them still have dangling participles) and by the time we announced the formation of Frederator Films in June 2007 surprise was awaiting all of us. J.J. Abrams, a huge Jack fan, had agreed to be my co-producer on the picture (a 2D/stereoscopic 3D production) through his company Bad Robot Productions at Paramount Pictures. We knew that with JJ and his producing partner Bryan Burk we’d be in more than good hands and improve our chances tremendously of actually seeing the movie on the big screens.

After lunch with Genndy, and the success of starting our company with Samurai Jack, our talent approach to animated movies had a prayer. The unanswered question was “what next?”. In fact, that was really about 1000 questions.

–Fred

[uraydo]

sounds awesome.

[Trailbreaker]

I loved the series. Sounds like something I'd see.

[Gabriel]

What 'Immortals' Director Tarsem Singh Really Wants to Do: Direct a 'Samurai Jack' Movie - Singh revealed his secret wish to THR at the film's Hollywood premiere on Monday, Nov. 7.

Tarsem Singh is the director behind Relativity’s new Greek god epic Immortals and next year's Lily Collins-Julia Roberts Snow White movie, Mirror, Mirror. What will he do next? At the Monday premiere of Immortals, Singh revealed his secret wish: to helm a live-action version of Samurai Jack.

Jack was an edgy and hyperactive animated show created by Genndy Tartakovsky that ran for three seasons on the Cartoon Network starting in 2001. It centered on a warrior from feudal Japan banished into the future by a shape-changing demon, with the warrior battling aliens and robots as he tries to find a way back. The show was known for its varied art styles, the use of split screens and multi-angles, and for long sequences that were dialogue free, all of which contributed to it winning four Emmys.

Singh told The Hollywood Reporter he has little interest in comic book movies but “I love Samurai Jack. I would love to direct that.” He said it’s the epic style, pace and art that he admires.

“It’s brilliant. The speed, it embraces where it comes from. I find that comic strip films are halfway grounded. They don’t play my chord. But I love Samurai Jack. I love the animation," he said.

A live-action version of Jack was actually set up at New Line in the early 2000s, with man-in-the-news Brett Ratner attached to direct and produce, but the rights have since reverted back to Cartoon Network.

“Have them contact me,” Singh said. You hear that, CN execs?

For his follow-up to Mirror, Mirror, however, Singh will probably to do a movie that rejects the visually intense nature of the films that so far have made his reputation.

“I want to do a talking-head movie like My Dinner with Andre or like an early (Roman) Polanski like Knife in the Water. I want to go there because now all everyone wants to think is that I want to do visual films," he explained

One reason he took on the Snow White movie was that it was a family adventure, a departure from the blood-spslattered and hard-R nature of Immortals. “Now the next thing to do is a movie that doesn’t have the spectacular in it,” he said, even though he thinks switching genres will only lead to a pay cut.

“When you do something that they think is in your style, people will write a big check for you, and if it’s not your style, they’ll go, ‘Oh, no, he might sink us’ and cut your rate. But if you don’t change it up early in your career and force people to redefine how they see you, when will you?”

[HarryCanyon]

Sounds great, i'm a huge fan of the show and was one of America's versions of anime besides Batman TAS.

[Gabriel]

Genndy Tartakovsky Talks HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA, Making a Family Film About Monsters, and What It Would Take to Make a SAMURAI JACK Movie

Will there ever be a Samurai Jack animated feature or live-action movie?

TARTAKOVSKY: It’s still around. Every year, somebody new picks it up who tries to push it through. I feel like, with Jack, it’s a funny curse. People like it for A, B and C, but as soon as they want to make it, they say, “Well, we can’t do A, B and C.” But, those are the key ingredients that make it successful. Once somebody comes along and just says, “I want to make it for what it is,” then it will get made. But right now, every time we try to run it up the flagpole, it never sticks.