Tom and Jerry Movie Release Date, Cast and More
The violent cat and mouse duo are headed for a live action hybrid ‘toon, as a new Tom & Jerry movie is in the works.
| | Tom and Jerry are getting a Space Jam-style live-action/animated hybrid feature treatment!
Indeed, while 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 Space Jam 2 both 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.
The film will be directed by Tim Story (Ride Along, Fantastic Four).
Tom and Jerry Movie Cast
The Tom and Jerry cast just acquired a quartet of new cast members. With the news confirmed via EW, the newcomers consist of the following (pictured directly above left-to-right):
Ken Jeong (Saving Zoë, Avengers: Endgame) as Jackie.
Rob Delaney (Catastrophe, Deadpool 2) as DuBros.
Jordan Bolger (The 100, Peaky Blinders) as Cameron.
Pallavi Sharda (Beecham House, Pulse) as Preeta.
No further details were revealed about the roles.
Michael Peña will co-star in the Tom and Jerry movie, as first reported by Deadline. He will play the film’s primary (human) antagonist, Terrance, described as “the deputy general manager of the hotel. A bit of bully, he hires Kayla (Chloe Moretz) as a temporary hire only to end up pitted against her and Tom/ Jerry once she starts impressing upper management.”
Peña, is in the midst of major momentum, thanks to his scene-stealing role as Luis in Marvel’s Ant-Man and sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp. He recently fielded a TV run on Netflix’s Narcos: Mexico, with film roles in The Mule, A Wrinkle in Time, 12 Strong (opposite Thor star Chris Hemsworth) and the film reboot of CHIPS. He’ll next be seen in the July 31-scheduled Dora the Explorer live-action adaptation Dora and the Lost City of Gold, playing the title character’s father. After that, he’ll star in the February-2020-scheduled movie reboot of Fantasy Island.
Chloë Grace Moretz will co-star in the film, as Collider first reported back in April. She will play protagonist Kayla, described as “a new employee at a posh hotel where Jerry takes up residence, threatening to ruin a glamorous wedding. She hires a broke alley cat named Tom to come in and get rid of Jerry, which proves to be easier said than done. That may be for the best, as the duo will likely need each other to defeat Kayla’s villainous boss, who isn’t a big fan of either one.”
The actress, Moretz, is known from films such as the Suspiria remake, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, The 5th Wave, The Equalizer, Kick-Ass (and its 2013 sequel), Let Me In and the Carrie remake.
Tom and Jerry Movie Release Date
Tom and Jerry is scheduled to arrive on April 16, 2021.
Tom and Jerry Movie Details
While director Tim Story is a lock, information on the script is still unclear at this point. The aforementioned Collider report claims that Katie Silberman (Booksmart), April Prosser (The Last Summer) and Kevin Costello contributed, though that has not been confirmed.
The classic cartoon cat-and-mouse duo – parodied to iconic, ultraviolent hyperbole by The Simpsons’ Itchy and Scratchy – started in 1940 – racking up 164 original shorts for various 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.
Interestingly, 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.
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Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.