Who Framed Roger Rabbit director Robert Zemeckis says Disney won’t touch a sequel because of Jessica Rabbit’s sex appeal.
She’s not bad, she’s just drawn that way…and that’s the problem. Rare as it is that the ahooooga-level sexiness of a cartoon would get in the way of a movie’s production, but that’s the situation that a sequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit finds itself in, forever stalled because Jessica Rabbit is just too damn fine for the screen.
Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, original Who Framed Roger Rabbit director Robert Zemeckis confirmed that a screenplay is ready to go, but the suits at the House of Mouse won’t touch it. “There’s a good script sitting at Disney, but here’s what you have to know, and you know this: the current Disney would never make Roger Rabbit today…They can’t make a movie with Jessica in it. So the [Peter] Seaman and [Jeffrey] Price sequel script isn’t ever going to see the light of day, as good as it is. Because look what they did to Jessica at the theme park, they trussed her in a trench coat.” In other words, Disney tried to hide Jessica’s bust and legs, lest another slip occur – you know the one…
With Who Framed Roger Rabbit standing as the highest-grossing movie of 1988 and one of the top earners of the entire decade, it’s sort of incredible that a sequel never came to fruition, which is a shame because if there’s ever film that we’d love a sequel to, it’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It was on the table as far back as the release with Steven Spielberg attached to direct the project, titled Who Discovered Roger Rabbit, which would go into Roger’s earlier years. After numerous delays, reworkings and red lights throughout the decades, the film remains stuck in development hell.
Still, even though Who Framed Roger Rabbit stands as one of the true classics and is a landmark of cinema technology (it even won a rare Special Achievement Academy Award for the live-action/animated hybrid VFX), we do have to wonder if it would land with today’s audience. We’re not talking Jessica Rabbit here, but is there a viewership or appreciation for this sort of film outside of those who grew up with it? Could it get away with its obscure characters or would Disney try to cram in their more modern films, maybe have a modern-day Eddie Valiant running around with Olaf from Frozen? It’s not all that hard to fathom, really, which is why it might be best that the sequel hasn’t happened.
Do you think a sequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit would find its audience today or should it remain unproduced? P-p-p-please leave your comments below!