Looney Tunes: Back in Action

By: Coming Attractions
Date: Friday, September 26, 2003

Genre:
Comedy/Fantasy/Animation.

Studio:
Warner Bros.

Production Company:
Unknown.

Project Phase:
Post-production.

Who's In It:
Brendan Fraser (Bobby Delmont); Jenna Elfman (Kate Houghton); Heather Locklear (Dusty Tails); Steve Martin;
Joan Cusack; Dick Miller; Robert Picardo; Kevin McCarthy.

Who's Making It:
Joe Dante (Director); John Recqua, Glenn Ficarra, Larry Doyle (Screenwriters); Dean Cundey (Director of
Photography); Jerry Goldsmith (Musical Score).

Premise:
Finished saving the world by beating aliens at basketball, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and the Tunes crew get involved in
Brendan Fraser's quest to find his long lost father and a mythical blue diamond.

Release Date:
November 14, 2003.

Comments:
BACK IN ACTION will be the first big-screen appearance for Tunes stars Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and the gang since 1996's SPACE JAM. Like JAM, it will be a blend of live action and animation.

Sci Fi fans will also have to keep an eye out for a variety of genre props. In a segment of the film, a triffid from DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS and a seedpod from INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, as well as DOCTOR WHO's Daleks all make appearances.

Scoop Feedback:

April 10, 2002... Warner Bros. is getting going on the long rumored LOONEY TUNES film, and is readying it for a Thanksgiving 2003 release.

Joe Dante has been hired to direct the untitled film which starts shooting in July. It will be the first big screen appearance for TUNE stars Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and the gang since SPACE JAM. Like JAM, it will be a blend of live action and animation.

CATS & DOGS scribes John Recqua and Glenn Ficarra have penned the script, with help from SIMPSONS writer Larry Doyle.

June 12, 2002... We've known for some time that Warner Bros. was looking to make another SPACE JAM like big screen adventure for the Looney Tunes, so the news that Brendan Fraser signed on to LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION came as not much of a shock.

What did come as a nice shock was the news Warners will begin producing short Looney Tunes again, to be run before Warner Bros. films. We'll get more on that as it comes.

But back to BACK IN ACTION. Like 1996's SPACE JAM, it will blend Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and the whole gang and Fraser as a man searching for his long lost father. The action is set in Las Vegas and Hollywood.

As already reported here, Joe Dante will be directing (the shoot begins at the end of July) for a November 2003 release.

August 20, 2002... Director Joe Dante is talking more about the upcoming LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION. The film has been touted as a return of the Warner Bros. stable of cartoon icons (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, etc.) to their real rabble-rousing versions of yesteryear, and not the bland 1990s versions seen in SPACE JAM.

We'll see. The plot Dante revealed sounds an awfully lot like the Bugs and Daffy seen in the 1970s, when they were more actors than the wild wise-asses of their 1940s and 1950s heyday.

Said Dante about the film, "Bugs and Daffy work at a movie studio. Daffy quits because he's tired of Bugs getting all the favorable treatment. He hooks up with a stuntman who is also fired the same day due to hanging around with Daffy too much, and gets involved in his adventure because his father was a secret spy on the trail of a mythical blue diamond. Daffy, of course, wants to go on the journey with him but the studio decides they want Daffy back, so Bugs and a young studio executive heroine have to go out and try to bring him back. It takes place over several continents and it's quite a big deal."

Brendan Fraser and Jenna Elfman are also set to star in the cartoon/live action film.

October 28, 2002... FANGORIA publishes an account of a set visit to the upcoming Joe Dante feature LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION. In a segment of the film, a wide range of sci fi props, robots, and monsters will put in an appearance.

The article chronicles both a triffid from DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS and a seedpod from INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, as well as DOCTOR WHO's Daleks. The clear bill-topper, however, is FORBIDDEN PLANET's iconic metal man, ROBBY THE ROBOT. Further creatures and tin cans are recorded as well.

June 4, 2003... Page drafted and updated with cast and crew information, as well as the film's release date (11-14-03).

September 26, 2003... Want to get the lowdown on why Warner Bros. Studios fired Daffy Duck? What about the latest info on the whereabouts of the missing Bugs Bunny? Or better yet, how about a pie-chart breakdown of what the Tazmanian Devil likes to munch on?

All of this and more can now be found at the official website for LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION which just launched yesterday. The studio has created the website to resemble the format of a newspaper. In addition to the bogus news items there's also a blog written by Daffy who spells out his frustration with Warner Bros. Doesn't the duck's agent have any pull in Hollywood? Maybe he can get him a guest spot on SMALLVILLE or something.

You can also take a look-see at the movie's trailer while you're there. BACK IN ACTION pops into theaters on November 14.