The original creator behind the novels that inspired Who Framed Roger Rabbit? has revealed plans to work on a new live-action feature film project for Jessica Rabbit, and this might just be missing the whole point entirely. In a recent interview with ImNotBad.com, Who Censored Roger Rabbit? writer Gary K. Wolf confirmed that he had gained the rights back to his characters seen in the film. Now pursuing new projects for them in the future, one of the first ones that Wolf is focusing on is a new Jessica Rabbit project that is inspired by the work Wolf had done with her origin story novel, Jessica Rabbit: XERIOUS Business.
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Released in 2022, Jessica Rabbit: XERIOUS Business is an official origin story that follows Jessica before she becomes the Jessica Rabbit that fans all know and love. Set in a world that reveals how Toontown came to be, and is more modern day compared to the noir vibe of the original, Wolf is hoping to make this into a new feature. But if that’s the case and we get this new live-action Jessica Rabbit movie, then it’s going to miss out on what fans loved about the original incarnation. It’s going to miss the toons.
Will a Jessica Rabbit Movie Even Work?
“The one that is most prominent … is a live-action Jessica Rabbit movie based on the book Jessica Rabbit: XERIOUS Business,” Wolf stated about his potential future projects. “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.” On the outside, it seems like a great project to pursue. It highlights a standout character seen in the original film, and its origin story hook falls in line with a lot of modern takes on older classics that have been all the rage in recent years.
The story also has a lot of promise in finding success as Jessica Rabbit, who would be in the film as her identity before everything happened, Jessica Krupnick (who was teased to be an “ordinary young woman living in an all-too-human Toon-less world), would finally reveal more about what makes her tick. The promise of revealing more of Toontown’s origins would be a fun hook for a modern day interpretation of the idea as well. But while it sounds good on paper, it just wouldn’t hit those high marks in practice.
It’s truly tough to express all the reasons why, but Jessica Rabbit was a major icon in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? because of how little we know about her. She works in those brief moments we see her because the film frames itself around her. She was a dramatically different take on cartoons that felt not only nostalgic for its comparisons to icons like Betty Boop, but stood out among the rest of Disney’s designs and characters (even being cited as a potential reason the film never got a sequel). She only really worked because of that juxtaposition to everything other cartoon seen in the film, and outside of that she loses that special spark.
Roger Rabbit Fans Would Expect…Roger Rabbit
The main issue with following up on Who Framed Roger Rabbit? with a new film at all, unfortunately, is that fans of the classic would be expecting the same thing. If this new Jessica Rabbit feature project not only focuses on the side character, but also removes much of its cartoon influences throughout its run, then it won’t get that support. Fans would expect to see a live-action/animated film hybrid for any new entry in this franchise, and that might be too much of a hurdle to overcome.
On top of that, what made the original Who Framed Roger Rabbit? so successful on top of that wasn’t that it was a detective noir style film, but that it was able to cross franchise divides and have all of these cartoons in one place. It might have been limited to a single scene, but with it fans got to see icons like Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny for the first (and last, really) time. It’s a gimmick that helped the film stand out as a major classic, and it’s not something you can really replicate these days as these franchises have been split across even more rights holders.
But to strip it away with a new live-action version of an iconic character who won’t even become the full “Jessica Rabbit” until later in its story just seems like the wrong move forward. This kind of difficulty in following up Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was also one of the reasons why a sequel never quite came together, and even the original novel writer behind it all is finding it tough to move forward. Although this sounds like an intriguing idea, it’s not something even fans of Jessica Rabbit would want to see in action.
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Image courtesy of Focus Features.
