J.J. Abrams Did An Outline For A Roger Rabbit Sequel

Even before Hollywood was dominated by sequels and reboots, for years there was talk of bringing back the gang from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? in some kind of follow-up.

In the years since the project fell into development limbo, the original film’s star Bob Hoskins passed away, and it seems as though the time for such a project has likely passed. During its years of quasi-development, though, apparently Star Trek and Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams was one of those to work on it.

Slashfilm reports that this was 1989 — the first time Abrams met with Kathleen Kennedy who would later hire him for Star Wars…and how that led to a meeting with Steven Spielberg about Roger Rabbit.

“When I was 16 Kathleen Kennedy called Matt Reeves and I, to ask if we would repair these 8mm films Steven [Spielberg] had made when he was a kid,” Abrams said. “It happened because we were in a film festival and she had read about us in the LA Times. So, of course, we said yes and did the repairs. Years later I got to meet Steven. I went into a meeting…actually, it was for a Roger Rabbit sequel. It was a whole thing. I actually have some storyboards for a Roger Rabbit short. Honestly, we never really got to that phase [where it got serious]. We were writing an outline, but it honestly went away before it was anything. This was a long time ago. Zemeckis probably would’ve been a producer on it.”

He added that the process of watching an animation pitch, where people would stand before boards and play out the scene, was hilarious for the uninitiated.