Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a cinematic event in 1989. Famous cartoons united across studios, meaning Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse were to share the screen, all blended with live action via every technological trick that late 1980s Hollywood could muster.
It added to Robert Zemeckis’ impressive CV, already boosted by Back To The Future. Now Zemeckis himself has revealed that there is a “good” script already written and ready to go for a sequel to the famous film. There is, however, a catch.
The original told the 1940s-set story of a gruff P.I. (Bob Hoskins) who becomes involved in a plot that has seen ‘toon Roger Rabbit framed for murder, and leads to a dastardly plan to eliminate all of Toon Town, Hollywood’s animated equivalent.
Disney’s Touchstone Pictures label collaborated with Amblin Entertainment on Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the production managed to bring together just about every famous character from the golden age of animation.
On the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Zemeckis spoke about the surprising reason the movie has not yet been made:
“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.”
The Kathleen Turner-voiced character was an iconic ingredient in the original movie and, as Zemeckis says, was made less overtly feminine for the theme park appearances a few years ago.