Roger Rabbit Finally Returns to His Creator with New Movies Planned
After more than three decades, the rights to Roger Rabbit have reverted to his creator.
Good news from Toontown, as Who Censored Roger Rabbit? author Gary K. Wolf has regained full ownership of his beloved character Roger Rabbit. Wolf confirmed the news in an interview with ImNotBad, saying, “I now have back the rights to all my characters, all my books. I can, basically, do my own Roger Rabbit projects.”
The Roger Rabbit rights reversion was made possible by the 35-Year Copyright Reversion Clause, which allows creators to reclaim their property after a set period. It’s now been 37 years since Disney (then under its Touchstone Pictures label) released Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and although the film was a critical and box office success, a sequel never materialized after efforts to make one abandoned by the 1988 film’s director, Robert Zemeckis.
Wolf seems keen to get more Roger Rabbit projects in the works now that he’s regained the rights, although he’s emphasized that he wants to uphold the standards that the 1988 flick set, stating: “Any sequels that we do have to at least match the quality of the original movie. In production value, in tone, in script content, in empathy, and 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.”
He revealed that the rights quietly reverted about a year ago and that his focus has already shifted to new projects, with one of his most advanced ideas centering around Jessica Rabbit: “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.”
Wolf could also be revisiting material from Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, including elements that didn’t make it into the film. “A lot of people have asked why didn’t we do the first movie more closely to the Who Censored Roger Rabbit? book. Well, that’s on the table.”
The author, who previously sued the Walt Disney Company for unpaid royalties, said he would still love to work with them again on future projects, but it feels like if Disney had wanted to make more Roger Rabbit, they would have done so a long time ago. Let’s hope there’s more Roger in our future from other interested parties.
Written by
Kirsten Howard has paid their dues. Yes sir, the check is in the mail.