Coming off his underappreciated Denzel Washington drama Flight, we’ve got one potential Robert Zemeckis project to cross off the list, as hopes of helming a remake of The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine have apparently been sunk.
The animated feature, which was originally set to begin production in December 2011 starring Cary Elwes, Dean Lennox Kelly, Peter Serafinowicz and Adam Campbell as the fabs, had been stopped by Disney, but now an interview with Total Film (found by Moviehole) reveals we likely won’t see it surface elsewhere.
When asked if he would return to the material, Zemeckis stated, “That would have been a great one to bring the Beatles back to life. But it’s probably better not to be remade – you’re always behind the 8-ball when do you a remake. It gets harder and harder [to make movies]. With the current state of the industry, it’s difficult to stay passionate about it. The hardest thing for a filmmaker as he’s aging is saying, “How much more of this crap can I take?” It’s tough, I can only do it if I have a script to believe in. Like Flight.”
It’s no surprise, as Zemeckis has a weak recent track record at Disney. In 2011, the Zemeckis-produced animated feature Mars Needs Mom cost $150 million to produce and only grossed just over $20 million. In 2009, he delivered another animated pic for Disney with A Christmas Carol, which lost the studio a bit over $40 million. But all is not lost between Zemeckis and the studio, as he is still developing a sequel to his hit Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. While that’s not confirmed as his next feature, hopefully we get news on what will be soon.
Are you sad we’ll likely never see Zemeckis’ Yellow Submarine?