With ”Who Framed Roger Rabbit” having opened more spectacularly last week than any movie in Disney history, the studio already is planning a sequel.
Disney chief Michael Eisner reveals that the firm is targeting a summer
`91 release for the ”Rabbit” that ”Roger” will breed. That means, he says, ”We have to start work in six weeks or so. Remember, we invested over three years in `Roger Rabbit.`
”We`ve been brainstorming ideas with our engineers for the last six months. I`m thinking in terms of doing a contemporary story.”
Referring to his brilliant motion picture chieftain, Jeff Katzenberg, Eisner adds, ”He`ll kill me. . . . I`m not supposed to talk about any of this yet.”
It was obvious to anyone at Orlando`s Disney World last weekend for the celebration of Mickey Mouse`s 60th birthday and the opening of the resort`s plush Grand Floridian Hotel that Roger Rabbit already has gained the status of a star among the Disney cartoon characters.
”They were working on the Roger Rabbit character costume at Disneyland in California,” Eisner says. ”And when I saw how phenomenally the movie was opening, I told Jeff, `Get that Rabbit on a plane for Orlando. He`s definitely a part of the family.`
”There will be Roger Rabbit rides-and more. You can safely assume he will be a major presence at all our theme parks,” Eisner says.
– Dudley Moore takes the gamble of his career come September, when he and bride Brogan Lane team in a big-screen drama about a writer who falls in love with a mentally retarded woman.
”There`s a built-in fear of tackling the subject of mental retardation,” Moore says, ”even though in `Sketch Life` the woman is just mildly retarded and she and the man develop an extraordinary relationship. I knew I wanted to make the film with Brogan as soon as I read the script a long time ago.”
– Michael Keaton will star as ”Batman” in the Warner Bros. film slated for shooting in September. Jack Nicholson will be aboard as the Joker.
