Whilst Disney is busy turning every one of its old animated classics into live action movies, Warner Bros is starting to mine its own ’toon archives for possible film adaptation ideas – with a Wile E. Coyote movie and a Space Jam sequel both now in the works. Next up on the reboot list is Hanna Barbera’s Tom and Jerry – the heart-warming tale of a cat and a mouse who have spent almost 80 years trying to kill each other.
Expected to blend live-action with CG animation, the new Tom and Jerry movie will be directed by Tim Story (Ride Along, Fantastic Four) and the two leads will, thankfully, both stay silent.
Story is currently working on his Shaft sequel/reboot, so the film isn’t expected to go into production until at least next summer – with a late 2020 release already pencilled in.
Tom and Jerry started in 1940 – racking up 164 original shorts for various different studios, picking up seven Academy Awards and overtaking the Looney Tunes in the early ’60s to become the highest-grossing animated short film series of all time.
Of course, the new Tom and Jerry film won’t be the cat and mouse’s first feature – with Tom And Jerry: The Movie released in 1992, followed by a string of straight-to-video releases. The duo’s last film, Tom And Jerry: Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory, came out just last year, but it probably marks the lowest point in their entire history, snapping a cheap, badly drawn mousetrap on the tongue of childhood memories around the world.
Hopefully, the new movie will put them right back on top.