Director Robert Zemeckis Doesn’t Think Disney Will Make a ‘Roger Rabbit’ Sequel

A sequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit? has been discussed for years now. However, numerous delays have made the idea of a sequel just wish. Now, it looks like Disney feels the same way. In an interview with Yahoo Movies this week, Director Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future trilogy) claims there isn’t much hope for Roger Rabbit, and the charachters of “Toontown.” As it is not apart of Disney’s current plans.

I DON’T KNOW WHERE IT FITS IN IN THEIR UNIVERSE. THERE’S NO PRINCESS IN IT, SO I DON’T KNOW WHERE THAT WOULD BE. THERE’S A WONDERFUL SCRIPT SITTING AT DISNEY THAT IS REALLY GOOD, BUT I DON’T THINK IT’S ON THEIR RADAR.

The script Zemeckis is referring to would have moved “the story of Roger and Jessica Rabbit into the next few years of period film, moving on from film noir to the world of the 1950s,” though there have been other Roger Rabbit sequel and prequel screenplays in existence prior to that, including one called Who Discovered Roger Rabbit and a buddy comedy called The Stooge which would have co-starred Mickey Mouse. Going way back to 1989, a young screenwriter named Jeffrey Abrams (now known as J.J.) had outlined a sequel under the supervision of Zemeckis and producer Steven Spielberg that was eventually abandoned.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? centered on down-on-his-luck private eye Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) who gets hired by cartoon producer R.K. Maroon (Alan Tilvern) to investigate an adultery scandal involving Jessica Rabbit (Kathleen Turner), the sultry wife of Maroon’s biggest star, Roger Rabbit (Charles Fleischer). But when Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye), Jessica’s alleged paramour and the owner of Toontown, is found murdered, the villainous Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) vows to catch and destroy Roger.

Released in 1988, the film would go on to gross over $354 million at the worldwide box office, making it the second highest grossing film that year, just behind Rain Man starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman.

Source: Yahoo Movies