There are a couple of properties of which you can always count on Dan Aykroyd to be incapable of letting go – GHOSTBUSTERS and THE BLUES BROTHERS. We have already seen Aykroyd fight tooth and nail in order to bring a new GHOSTBUSTERS to the screen after a third film with the original team never came together, forming Ghost Corps to develop all things GHOSTBUSTERS for the future. So with that settled, it was only a matter of time before he shifted his attention to Elwood and Jake once again. You'd have thought he might have learned his lesson after the debacle that was BLUES BROTHERS 2000, but no… He's going to keep on going in order to preserve the musical bond he shared with the late John Belushi.
That's why he's resurrecting the characters for an animated comedy series he's developing with Belushi's widow Judy. Teaming up with original SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE writer Anne Beatts, the primetime show would focus on the fedora-and-sunglasses-wearing tandem, putting them back on the road with their band as they continue to escape the law.
According to Akyroyd:
The show will be the Blues Brothers living in America and utilizing all new technology to make and promote their own records, seek out and record new artists and avoid law enforcement – and all while fighting for truth, justice and a better breakfast sandwich.
This isn't the first time an animated Blues Brothers series has tried to get off the ground. Akyroyd and Judy Belushi licensed the rights out for an animated series back in 1997 for programming that was supposed to run on then-UPN, but it never came to be. They began pitching a series themselves back on 2011, in the hopes of reviving and expanding the Blues Brothers brand, but no takers were found. However, now may be the right time for them to try striking again, given that everything old is new again and nostalgia is in right now in a big way.
The plan is for the series to be shopped around to various television platforms starting this month. It wouldn't surprise me if one of the streaming companies bite.