There was a news piece some time ago about a barrel scraping studio executive looking to bring strong man sailor POPEYE back to screens in some kind of radical reboot. At the time it wasn’t clear if it would be live-action or animated or hand puppets or what. Now it seems it’s definitely going to be animated and the man bringing this masterpiece to us will be Genndy Tartakovsky.

The film will be a 3D animated affair from Sony Pictures produced by Avi and Ari Arad, Tartakovsky will be developing and directing the film. His latest film HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA looks completely uninspiring but there are people who are big fans of SAMURAI JACK so maybe he will pull it out of the bag for POPEYE and make him some kind of comical drunk street fighter who gets musclebound and crazy when he consumes spinach.

Popeye the Sailor is a character created by Elzie Crisler Segar and first appeared in 1929. There have been previous animated versions and a bizarre live-action film from 1980 with Robin Williams in the lead role directed by Robert Altman. Tartakovsky also has a long-gestating SAMURAI JACK movie in development.

Thoughts? Share ’em in the Comments section or on Twitter @Starburst_Mag and they could be read on the Starburst Radio podcast (available on iTunes HERE)