A Space Jam sequel is currently in the works with LeBron James in the lead, but at one point, we almost had a very different follow-up. According to skateboard legend Tony Hawk, Warner Bros. approached him in the early 2000s to star in a film called Skate Jam, which would presumably feature the Looney Tunes characters riding skateboards and saying things like “Sick shred, bro! Now hit the halfpipe!” Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately?), the box office failure of Looney Tunes: Back in Action kept Skate Jam from ever getting off the ground.
Warner Bros. has been threatening us with a Space Jam sequel ever since the first film was a blockbuster hit in 1996. While we’ve been hearing rumblings of a potential sequel for years, here’s something that was kept under-wraps: a follow-up starring Tony Hawk. Hawk confirmed it himself on Twitter.
in 2003, I was requested to meet with Warner Brothers about doing a film tentatively titled “Skate Jam.” They were bringing back Looney Tunes with “Back In Action” & then wanted to start on my project immediately. A week later Back In Action bombed & Skate Jam was shelved forever pic.twitter.com/9giKzBnlWH
— Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) January 5, 2019
As Hawk says, Warners reached out to him in 2003, and they wanted to start on Skate Jam “immediately.” That changed a week later, however, when Looney Tunes: Back In Action bombed at the box office, which is a shame, because Back In Action is a much better film than Space Jam. Hawk doesn’t go into any detail about what the Skate Jam plot involved, but it’s safe to assume it focused on skating and jamming, and Bugs Bunny probably wore a backwards baseball hat at one point.
Skate Jam is one of a long-list of abandoned Space Jam follow-ups. The original plan was to make Space Jam 2, but Michael Jordan didn’t want to return. After that, a film titled Spy Jam was in the works, with Jackie Chan starring. There was also Race Jam, which would’ve starred stock car racing driver Jeff Gordon. Yet another potential Space Jam sequel would’ve featured golfer Tiger Woods. Needless to say, none of these got off the ground, and the Jam franchise died out before it even got started.
Last year, however, it was confirmed that a new Space Jam was finally moving forward, produced by Ryan Coogler, starring LeBron James and directed by Terence Nance. Production is set to begin this year. Sadly, it doesn’t sound like skating will figure into the plot. But you never know – maybe the LeBron James Space Jam sequel will be such a hit that Warners will go ahead and start giving the green light to all of these cancelled projects. Skate Jam may yet see the light of day! (But probably not.)
The post ‘Space Jam’ Sequel ‘Skate Jam’ Almost Happened, Starring Tony Hawk appeared first on /Film.
from /Film http://bit.ly/2FdN71s
No comments:
Post a Comment