/film wrote:Robert Rodriguez Signs on for ‘Jonny Quest’ at Warner Bros.

The Hanna-Barbera cartoon Jonny Quest, about the globe-trotting adventures of a boy, his scientist father, and a small group of compatriots, has been in development as a film for years. Back in 2008 a Jonny Quest script even ended up on the Black List of popular unproduced screenplays. But that version stalled out, and has remained in limbo for a very long time. Now Warner Bros. has revived the Jonny Quest movie plan, and has Robert Rodriguez set to direct.

The draft that hit the Black List, by Dan Mazeau, had a simple logline:

Young Jonny Quest travels the world with his scientist father, adopted brother from India, Bandit the bulldog, and a government agent assigned to protect them while they investigate scientific mysteries.

THR reports that Terry Rossio (The Pirates of the Caribbean) will rewrite Mazeau’s script with Rodriguez.

The expensive original show only lasted one season, but its combination of innocence and pulp adventure ideas is right in line with what Rodriguez loves. It’s easy to see the guy who made the Spy Kids movies and is redoing Frank Frazetta’s Fire and Ice taking on this film. And it isn’t a stretch to see that Warner Bros. would be happy to have a guy comfortable working with lower than usual studio budgets potentially making a big kid-friendly movie that can be licensed like crazy.

What will be interesting to see is how Rodriguez, who has long operated as an independent, largely shooting out of his own Austin-based studio, will work with the current Warner Bros. setup. We don’t know if this film will be produced along the lines of other recent Rodriguez projects, or if he’ll work in a more typical studio fashion.

DH wrote:Rodriguez Talks "Jonny Quest" Movie

With the Television Critics Association tour continuing today, one panelist that has been doing interviews has been none other than filmmaker Robert Rodriguez who has been promoting the second season of his "From Dusk Till Dawn" TV series.

Collider spoke with the "Sin City" helmer and managed to ask him about the live-action film based on the classic "Jonny Quest" cartoon that he has in the works. At last report Rodriguez would be directing the film as well as working on the script alongside Terry Rossio based on a draft by Dan Mazeu. Asked about where the project stands he says:

"I'm turning in the script right now. I've just been working on the script. I love Jonny Quest. The originals are so cool. They were really ahead of their time. I grew up with them because they used to play in syndication, and my kids still love them.

They're action-packed. That was an action cartoon. They had to cancel it after the first season because they couldn't keep up with it. The amount of drawings was like four times the amount of drawings. It was an adventure. Before Indiana Jones, it was an Indiana Jones/James Bond action-adventure strip with a kid in it. It just happened to have a kid. It wasn't a kid's story. It was an action-adventure story that had a kid in it.

So, that's what it's going to be with the movie. I made Spy Kids movies, but those are more kids being spies and their family. This is more of a legitimate action-adventure film that has a kid in it."

He was also asked about what sort of tone and rating he's aiming for to which he replied: "It will be PG or PG-13. It depends. Sometimes with the action, even if it's not bloody, it depends on how the ratings' board feels. I tried to make Spy Kids G-rated. They made it PG, just ‘cause there's action. It depends on how far you push that."