Turner pix on 'Quest'
Turner has inked Donner/Shuler-Donner Productions and Tribeca Productions to produce the pic, to be titled "Jonny Quest," and based on one of TV's most successful cartoons.
Turner plans for the project to be the centerpiece of a Turner Broadcasting System company-wide initiative.
"In the spirit of 'The Flintstones,' the theatrical debut of 'Jonny Quest' will be a motionpicture combining all of TBS' resources," said Dennis Miller, prexy of Turner Pictures.
Hanna-Barbera Cartoons Inc. will produce a full-length animated "Jonny Quest" for TNT in the first quarter of 1995 as part of the plan, along with another newly developed animated series on the boy skedded for fall of that year.
Turner will also coordinate licensing, merchandising, publishing and homevid deals for the property, which have not yet been announced.
The deal is similar in approach to Turner's merchandising campaign for the Universal Pictures release of "The Flintstones."
Turner is launching re-mastered episodes of that original series as well as a line of books on the characters, more than 500 licensing and merchandising deals worldwide, and ongoing programming festivals and marathons across all the Turner Entertainment outlets.
As for "Jonny Quest," Hanna-Barbera prexy Fred Seibert said the series was a natural for a live-action remake.
"When Turner bought Hanna-Barbera, we went into the library and really started looking at our properties," he said. "Our phones were ringing off the hook asking about 'Jonny Quest.' "
Like the series, the pic will follow the adventures of the 12-year-old Quest; his father, Dr. Benton Quest, a globe-trotting scientist and government agent; his sidekick Hadji, a mystical boy from India with magical powers; Bandit, his pet dog; and Roger Bannon, Jonny's personal bodyguard.
Casting choices have not yet been made. Lauren Shuler-Donner, Richard Donner and Jane Rosenthal will produce "Jonny Quest," which is slated to start production sometime next year.
