There are some characters that have been massively underused on screen, one of which is Roger Rabbit. After appearing in the near-perfect, groundbreaking Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988, the rights to the character have been sitting in Disney’s files, only to have resulted in nothing but a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo appearance from the character in 2022’s Chip n Dale: Rescue Rangers – a movie that was massively inspired by Roger’s only movie outing. But that is all about to change after ownership of the character reverted to its original owner, Gary K. Wolf.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was a massive deal in 1988, a live-action/animated hybrid movie that not only broke new ground in its seamless blend of real actors and “Toons,” but also saw animated characters from across Disney and Warner Bros. appearing on-screen together in a way that would usually cause all kinds of legal demands. Not only that, but the movie was an almost flawless parody of the Film Noir genre, and its 96% Rotten Tomatoes score stands as testament to that.
Now, we could finally see new Roger Rabbit projects happening, as Wolf, who wrote the much darker novel, Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, on which the film was based, made it clear that reclaiming the rights means he can “do my own Roger Rabbit projects.” Wolf’s claim to the characters has been made in line with the 35-Year Copyright Reversion Clause, which allows original authors and songwriters to reclaim their work after a period of 35 years has passed. Wolf added:
“Any sequels that we do have to at least match the quality of the original [1988] movie. In production value, in tone, in script content, in empathy, in character development. It has to be as good, or better than, what we did before. That’s what the fans want, and I have promised the fans that’s what I’m going to give them.”
How Roger Rabbit Was Rescued from Disney & What Happens Next?
According to I’mnotbad.com, Wolf first became aware that he could potentially claim back the rights to his characters when he was working on a TV series that took place in Toontown – the same setting as Who Framed Roger Rabbit? When looking into whether he was actually able to use the Toontown name, Wolf was alerted to the fact that he could approach Disney to get the rights to not only Toontown but all the characters from his novel. While Disney has been known to play hardball at times, that was seemingly not the case this time around. Wolf said:
“I expected that this would be a contentious process. Who knows what was going to happen? But, it was not. It was very civil, very courteous, very straightforward. Disney was always top-notch for me. They treated me very well. They always accommodated me in whatever I wanted to do.”
Among several new projects that Wolf has been working on since 2022, a live-action Jessica Rabbit movie is “furthest along” and would be based on his own novel, Jessica Rabbit: XERIOUS Business. Wolf said:
“The one that is most prominent … is a live-action Jessica Rabbit movie based on the book Jessica Rabbit: XERIOUS Business. That was the first project that we took a look at and the first we started developing. It’s probably the one that’s furthest along right now.”
While this is something that was previously said to be “not something Disney would ever do” by Zemeckis, now Disney would not have to be involved. However, Wolf has made it clear that he would “love for Disney to participate” in whatever comes next, which could even be a more faithful adaptation of Wolf’s original novel. As he added, “I’m looking to have fun with this and give fans what they have been wanting for 35 years.”
- Release Date
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June 21, 1988
- Runtime
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103
- Director
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Robert Zemeckis
- Writers
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Gary K. Wolf, Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman