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There are a few people in Hollywood who have quite the Midas touch at the moment quite like J.J. Abrams. The writer/director/producer successfully relaunched a cinematic franchise with "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," and this past weekend, saw "10 Cloverfield Lane" open strong with everyone involved taking on a gamble on announcing the movie’s existence just two months ago. Abrams is a storyteller with the kind of ideas that get him into pitch meetings, and on a recent podcast chat with The Nerdist, joined by ‘Cloverfield Lane’ director Dan Trachtenberg, he shares the story of the first time he met Steven Spielberg. And it just happened to be when he had a concept for a sequel for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit."
READ MORE: Watch: 13-Minute Video Essay Details The Book Vs. Film Differences In ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’
"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. This was 1989," he said (via
Vulture).
"We were talking about the movie, but they had an idea for this short," Abrams continued. "I remember going to the animators — and I had never seen an animation pitch before — and they took me through it. There were three giant boards, and with a stick, they’d point to one of the storyboards and perform every frame. For someone who knows animation, you think, ‘Yeah, that’s what they do,’ but having never seen it before, it was unbelievably entertaining watching these two men perform, doing the voices."
Abrams didn’t share what the ‘Roger Rabbit’ sequel story might’ve been, so we’ll have to leave it to our imagination. Plus lots of more to check out in the extensive talk below.
I look forward to JJ\’s Roger Rabbit. It will have a glossy modern sheen and it will repurpose key story beats from the original and JJ will defend it by saying he was "embracing the history that we know" in order to tell a new story. You know: going backwards to go forwards.
Keep JJ the eff away from Roger Rabbit