Marvin the Martian aims his space modulator on the big screen

Posted Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 3:00 PM Central

by Tim Briscoe

Warner Bros. is developing the Looney Tunes character Marvin the Martian for a feature film. According to Variety, the project will be computer animated and live-action, akin to 1996's Space Jam.

The publication also says it'll be a Christmas themed storyline:

[Producer Steve] Crystal developed the pitch as a Christmas story, with Marvin coming to Earth to destroy Christmas but being prevented from doing so when he’s trapped in a gift box.

Warner hasn't hired a writer or director yet. Given that and the fact that animation production takes considerable time, we probably won't see this one until 2010 or 2011.

The Marvin the Martian character made his debut in the 1948 Bugs Bunny short "Haredevil Hare" directed by Chuck Jones. That cartoon can be found on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1 DVD.

When I first heard this news, I was really excited. Marvin the Martian is still a character with a great cult status. He's not as widely known as Bugs Bunny but offers lots of CGI possibilities. Besides that, he also happens to be one of my favorites.

My anticipation turned to dread when I learned it would be a mixture of CGI and live action. Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Cool World, and Osmosis Jones were all right, I guess. Space Jam sure wasn't. (The Christmas premise for this also sounds horrible.)

Bringing the age-old and still very viable Looney Tunes characters into the new computer animated world is a great idea. Let's just not ruin it by having Marvin fire his Illudium Q-36 explosive Space Modulator at real actors. It's either stay 100% animated or stay at home -- on Mars.

What do you think? Are you excited for this new film project? What other classic cartoon characters would you like to see computer animated?