WB making live action Pepe Le Pew movie?

[gaastra]

First bugs, then speedy, then marvin, now this!

http://www.movieweb.com/news/NEEnTfdeHmlyHK

[Daniel]

Wait, Speedy? Marvin? Did I miss something?

Can't say I'm thrilled with the news. These type of films have a tendency of ruining cartoon classics. And Mike Myers as Pepe? Ick.

[James]

Here's a pic of the character...

http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs ... yers_l.jpg

[Ben]

Very droll...

[Randall]

At first, I thought, "...and it looks too much like his Cat in the Hat! That's pretty lame," and then.. oh, I get it.

Very droll.

[EricJ]

Wait, Speedy? Marvin?

Speedy's still in the talking stage, and Marvin...haven't heard that one in a while.

Still, think Warner should probably WAIT till after "Yogi Bear"'s returns--
Name-merchandising always sounds easy before the first movie opens...

[Ben]

Well they're still going ahead with Bugs Bunny, so you want them to wait on how that does too?

Basically, it's in development, which doesn't mean they're going to actually make a movie. They're just exploring the possibilities and the, yes, if Yogi tanks as much as it should, then they may scrap or adjust the budget accordingly. But they're only spending peanuts at the moment, so why wait?

[droosan]

Why not an animated Pepe Le Pew movie..?

.. or, might that be too avant-garde?

[Darkblade]

Oh god...WB is smoking something hard to make them so stupid. Anyways I found a video which honestly shows how stupid this is.

[EricJ]

Oh god...WB is smoking something hard to make them so stupid.

No, it's the Desperation of "Kids don't remember the Looneys! ", mixed with Pre-release confidence born of counting all the character-synergy money Yogi Bear's movie hasn't made yet.
And again, while we don't expect Yogi's flop to be of biblical proportions, it'll likely be enough to send a few solo-character-marketing proposals back into Warner's vault while they go back to the drawing board.

[Darkblade]

Did they completely forget how much EVERYONE{not counting the little kids} hated Alvin and the chipmunks? It just goes to show that nearly every audience member{well not everyone} is a complete idiot over entertainment. For exmaple.

People went to see Alvin 2 over Princess and the frog(Disney's own gift for 2D fans and the critics even stated that they should have taken their kids to see that instead of the rodents) and the most recent example is Vampire Sucks winning over Scott pilgrim.

[Randall]

When it comes to the movie biz, it doesn't matter how many people hate something. All that matters is how much money it will make. The Alvin films were huge hits, depsite the critics. So, we'll continue to see old cartoon characters exploited like that for a while yet, until we've had a few bombs.

And as much as we may think that Yogi will be a stinker, it may just surprise at the box office.

[EricJ]

Did they completely forget how much EVERYONE{not counting the little kids} hated Alvin and the chipmunks? It just goes to show that nearly every audience member{well not everyone} is a complete idiot over entertainment. For exmaple.
People went to see Alvin 2 over Princess and the frog(Disney's own gift for 2D fans and the critics even stated that they should have taken their kids to see that instead of the rodents).

Well, that's just it: They NEVER FOUND OUT how much audiences hated Alvin 1 and 2, because both movies were released on Christmas Day, when parents will literally take their kids to see any new family movie of least resistance that week, so long as it gets them out of the house. That was the reason Frog famously backed out of their game of Christmas-Day Chicken with Alvin, and had it been the other way around, Frog would have ended up making the $200M and Alvin would've done the live-action-Charlotte's-Web flop.
For that reason, Christmas Day has almost literally become a genre with studios, and they produce a CGI character-identification movie to fill that date every year. (Since you technically have to sell the movie to parents who park the car and buy the tickets, and parents know who Alvin, Yogi and Fat Albert are even if the kids don't.)

Thankfully, however, in the last year, the new mania has struck studios to release their Christmas money-movies (like Yogi) the week BEFORE Christmas on the 17th, when parents never go to theaters. Why is that date so popular with studios now?...No one really knows.
I, er, THINK it's because they think "it worked for Avatar"--But problem is, you see, Avatar isn't a kiddie film, and the week-before rule only works for teen and sci-fi like Tron Legacy...That's sort of why the Christmas Day kiddie-CGI rule existed in the first place, with school vacation and all.
And if Warner just greedily rescheduled Yogi out of its one other reason for being in theaters at all, well, erm...bummer.

[Darkblade]

Eric, I would rather watch the horrible Tom and jerry movie of the 90's than look at this or even the "Alvin" treatment that the cat and mouse are getting. but however all of this are going to have one thing in common, they are going to stink. I would even watch a horribly gone wrong sam and max movie from pixar. (Ironically though,Steve purcell works at Pixar and he stated somewhere that Sam and max arent the best for Pixar for a film)

[Dacey]

Neither "Alvin" movie opened on Christmas day, Eric.

In fact, the very first Alvin came out on the 15th of December, had a huge $40 million+ opening, and then went on perform strongly for the rest of the year.

So, it's not just something that "worked for Avatar" (which kids saw, btw), it's a date that studios have been using for a long time to open wannabe tentpoles.