Director Robert Zemeckis says the only thing holding back a sequel to Roger Rabbit is a green light

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Director Robert Zemeckis has made some genuine classics in his career so far, with the BACK TO THE FUTURE series, FOREST GUMP, and of course, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? which was his first forte into blending live action with animation.  Later he would take that genre into new realms with the motion capture animation he used in films like BEOWULF and THE POLAR EXPRESS.  His first live-action feature, FLIGHT, is currently in theaters and the director has been making the media rounds, where he shared his thoughts on a re-release, as well as a sequel, to “ROGER RABBIT.”  

When asked if he would ever post-convert one of his films to 3D, Zemeckis said it would only be for one film.  “The only one is’ Roger Rabbit,’ because you could really pull the animation out as a separate element. It would be very spectacular 3-D,” Zemeckis said. “As far as converting, the ‘Back to the Future” films… I don’t see the point in that. But they did a test on ‘Roger’ back in 2006, somewhere around then, and it looks really great.”

When asked about the progress on a sequel for WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? Zemeckis was optimistic and it seems the project is much further along than simply an idea in someone’s head.  “I’m happy with the script. It’s very good. It’s written by the original writers, and it’s good. [But Disney] is still thinking about it. If I were to do the sequel, it would be done just like the first one. It would look the same way, but we would present it in 3-D in its release. I would do all of the animation hand-drawn; 2-D, but using 3-D tools. It wouldn’t be like Pixar 3-D. It wouldn’t look like that.”

When asked if Zemeckis’ sequel to the film would include the modern-day stable of animated characters, the director answered confidently that, “No, this would again be another period movie. That’s all I can say!”

Lastly, when poised with the question of directing one of the new STAR WARS films, Zemeckis was equally assuring, saying, “Oh, I wouldn’t even know what to do. I wouldn’t know how to do “Star Wars.”

Strangely, I have more faith in Zemeckis than he does in himself on that front.  I think he’d do a pretty kick ass STAR WARS, but I’ll be happy just to have a ROGER RABBIT sequel. 

Zemeckis’ FLIGHT is currently in theaters and WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? is set to debut on blu-ray sometime in 2013.