Ok, first things first: don’t get your hopes up too high, “Samurai Jack” fans.
Still, the long-toiling feature film version of the popular animated series (not to be confused with the live-action adaptation “Immortals” director Tarsem Singh has stated he’d like to make) could potentially be moving closer to reality, at least according to the show’s creator Genndy Tartakovsky.
“I’ve been trying so hard every year, and the one amazing thing about ‘Jack’ is that I did it in 2001, you know, and it still survived,” Tartakovsky told IGN in an interview at the Toronto Film Festival, where he recently premiered his upcoming animated comedy “Hotel Transylvania.” “There’s something about it that’s connected with people. And I want it, it’s number 1 on my list, and now Bob Osher, the President [of Digital Production at Sony Picture Entertainment], is like ‘Hey, let’s talk about Jack. Let’s see what we can do.’ And I go, ‘You’re going to do a 2D feature animated movie?’ and he’s like, ‘Yeah. Maybe. Let’s do some research and let’s see.’ So it’s not dead for sure by any means, and it’s still on the top of my list, and I’m trying as hard as I can.”
“Samurai Jack” centers on the exploits of the title character, a young prince who must find a way back to the past after he is banished from Feudal Japan into a dystopian future by a powerful demon. The critically-acclaimed series, which won several Emmys during its run, aired from 2001-2004 on The Cartoon Network before being cancelled partway through its fourth season (the unaired episodes were later made available online). New Line Cinema began the process of developing an animated feature-film version in 2002, but the project was later abandoned.
Are you a “Samurai Jack” fan? Still interested in seeing a feature-film version? Sound off in the comments.