Warner Bros. Pictures Animation Lines Up 'Emily The Strange', Third 'Tom & Jerry' Try
Warning: I may just end up being as inconsistent with the ampersand and the 'and' usage as the franchise itself is
The game of cat and mouse will head back to the big screen again. Warner Bros. Pictures Animation has tapped Rashida Jones, Will McCormack and Michael Govier to write a new Tom and Jerry film, while teaming up with Bad Robot for an adaptation of the Emily the Strange comics.
The famed feline and rodent creations of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, who did so while at MGM in 1940, are no strangers to movie screens, having starred in 114 shorts that won 7 Oscars in its initial run. However, both the 1992 Tom and Jerry: The Movie and 2021 hybrid Tom & Jerry feature films have been critically panned and not received well by general audiences either. However the latter was quite the success at the box office even in pandemic circumstances that made it available on HBO Max day and date for 30 days, grading $136 million on a budget ranging $50-$79 million.
The trio aren’t quite three separate professional entities. They’re more like 2 teams with an overlapping and connecting member. Jones and McCormack work as writers, directors and producers under their Le Train Train banner with credits including Celeste and Jesse Forever, Toy Story 4 and the upcoming The Invite, which Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris are directing with Amy Adams, Paul Rudd and Tessa Thompson attached to star. Most recently they made the short documentary A Swim Lesson, about swim coach Bill Marsh and the young people he helps replace fear with confidence and safety in their lives. McCormack is the thread, as he teamed with Govier to write and direct the Oscar-winning 2020 short film If Anything Happens I Love You, released to Netflix. Jones also co-directed Quincy, the Grammy-winning documentary about her legendary music producer father Quincy Jones, with Al Hicks.
Bad Robot is producing the Emily the Strange animated film with franchise creator Rob Reger, who serves an executive producer with Trevor Duke-Moretz. Disney and Nimona alum Pamela Ribon, an Academy Award nominee for her animated short “My Year of Dicks,” is writing. “Both the creative and executive teams we have in place for the movie are incredible. Everyone shows up with a keen perspective along with an understanding and respect for the unique connection Emily the Strange has with our ‘real world.’ Emily celebrates all that is weird and different, which in turn makes the strange and unusual in all of us, feel a little less alone,” said Reger. “Bringing to life Emily’s universe and many mythologies we have created over the years is truly one of Emily’s best nightmares come true.”
In fact, a lot of those involved gave statements, such as Ribon who said “I’m so excited to be part of the team giving Emily her first feature film! Animation is the perfect medium for her wild and wonderful inventions and adventures, and from the partnership between Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, she’ll truly get to soar. I’ve always been drawn to Emily’s risk-taking, genre-bending attitude and style. I mean, brains and bangs? There’s nobody cooler. This one’s going to be so much fun.” Duke-Moretz said, “After years of dreaming, we are thrilled to have Emily’s world finally come to life with Bad Robot, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation and Pamela Ribon.”
“Emily is an enduring pop-culture icon of individuality and empowerment, and Pamela Ribon has a singular and iconic voice,” Warner Bros. Pictures Animation president Bill Damaschke said. “What an honor it is for us as Warner Bros. Pictures Animation to partner with Bad Robot, Rob [Reger] and Trevor [Duke-Moretz] in bringing Emily the Strange to the big screen.”
“At Bad Robot, we are looking to push the boundaries of what’s possible in animation. Emily, a character who refuses to be defined by others, is the perfect opportunity to do just that,” said Bad Robot’s Senior Vice President of animation John Agbaje. “We’re thrilled to add her world to our feature animation slate. The team assembled has so much passion for Emily the Strange, what she’s represented so far, and what she will mean to future generations.”
The Emily the Strange franchise began in the early 1990s, as an image on skateboards, stickers, and t-shirts, before expanding into a multimillion-dollar universe of characters, books, comics, games, clothing and merchandise with a striking black, white and red aesthetic. Emily’s witty observations about society and her four black cats represent a “raw, punk rock, independent spirit” and a D.I.Y. philosophy of “think for yourself, do it yourself, be yourself,” encouraging aspirations and individuality, even through mischief. Its journey to the big screen dates back 20 years, with Fox setting up one in 2005 and Universal doing so in 2010 with Nimona’s Chloe Grace Moretz attached. Both seem to have been live action-intended productions.
I hope they get T&J right this time.