Marcel the Shell Creator Jenny Slate Is Working on a Top-Secret Looney Tunes Movie

By Doug Barry | September 21, 2012 | 2:25am

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Many of the Looney Tunes may be just a touch too violent and racist for any more big screen forays in the 21st century, but Warner Bros. really, really wants to make a profitable Looney Tunes movie after Looney Tunes: Back in Action floundered under the weight of Brendan Fraser’s decaying career. To the end, the studio has hired former Saturday Night Live cast member and co-writer/voice talent of Marcel the Shell Jenny Slate to make all the animated loons stars again, probably capitalizing on the same Hollywood-comeback narrative that the Muppets used to vault back into pop culture.

The Looney Tunes were last spotted in 2003, beating the acting careers of Brendan Fraser (who may never have been the next Harrison Ford, but was pretty good in Airheads) and Jenna Elfman quite to death — Back in Action grossed a paltry $20 million domestic dollars. Before that, in 1996, Space Jam fared a little better with a $90 million domestic haul, but that movie featured Michael Jordan and Michael Jordan wins at everything. Slate’s script is a closely-guarded secret, but it would very cool if she somehow incorporated the Tiny Toons and made all the Looney Tunes grumpy, middle-aged parents trying to recapture the glory of their youth while simultaneously raising reasonably well-adjusted animated animal children. Or the Looney Tunes could get into a Big Chill situation, you know, whatever feels like the most narratively organic way to make outdated characters relevant again.