In what will surely be a tough blow to the spinach industry, Genndy Tartakovsky is not only no longer directing Sony’s Popeye movie, but the studio has apparently dropped the movie entirely. This news comes from /Film, and it sounds like the issue is that Tartakovsky was simply never able to convince Sony that the movie was worth making in the first place. He released some (surprisingly good) test footage back in September to try and build support for the project, and even though it did help build some positive support, it wasn’t enough for the miserly penny-pinchers at Sony to be convinced that a CG movie based on an old cartoon was worth making (again).
Thankfully, this frees Tartakovsky up to make that Samurai Jack movie everybody has wanted him to make, which he will almost certainly get started on as soon as he can. Maybe even today! No, just kidding. Tartakovsky is still directing Hotel Transylvania 2 for Sony, and his next project after that will be an original idea called Can You Imagine? that is billed as some sort of journey through a child’s imagination. After that, though, he’ll totally make that Samurai Jack movie. Unless he’s too busy with Hotel Transylvania 3 or a Hotel Transylvania spinoff that’s all about Kevin James’ Frankenstein character, of course. But after that he’s definitely probably not going to make a Samurai Jack movie.