The Rock as Race Bannon, Zac Efron as Jonny Quest?

Posted by Dr. Cole Abaius (cole.abaius@filmschoolrejects.com) on February 16, 2009

Johnny Quest, yes. The Rock, maybe. Zac Efron, say what.

As if rising from the ashes of the 2008 Black List, Warners has taken notice of one of the top unsold scripts – one for Jonny Quest. According to IESB, who spoke to Dwayne Johnson, Warners is looking to cast The People’s Elbow in the role of Race Bannon – the bodyguard, bad ass, and possible child-toucher from the iconic show.

But wait. There’s more.

They are looking to cast Zac Efron as Jonny Quest. I have no idea how to feel about this. I’m not even sure I should be feeling anything about it. Efron has a built-in fan base, as our friends at IESB point out, but I’m not sure why. If someone can explain it, other than him being “dreamy,” that would be awesome. Thanks in advance.

The studio is also looking to Andy Fickman, who recently directed the as-yet-untested Race to Witch Mountain with Johnson, and formerly directed the very un-good Reefer Madness: The Musical and She’s the Man.

I can only hope that Reverend Horton Heat will be providing the main theme song.

Hopefully you can tell through the tone of my writing how negative I am about this whole thing. The Rock is awesome, I could sit through Zac Efron playing Quest, and I assume that they will be casting a Caucasian as Hadji, but Fickman brings a certain cheese factor to the whole thing that takes it beyond the pale. Still, the deal isn’t quite finalized.

What do you think?


Read more articles by Dr. Cole Abaius

« Previous Article | Next Article »

Related Topics:

Casting Couch, In Development, Movie News, , , , ,

Related Reading:

Your Ad Here

Comment Policy: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Film School Rejects reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. We also reserve the right to modify any curse words in your comments and make you look like an idiot. Thank You!

  • Fickman brings cheese factor to Jonny Quest? How is that not redundant?
  • You want cheese? See The Venture Brothers on adult swim. Sadly it's in between seasons, but after watching that, I couldn't EVER take a live-action Jonny Quest seriously. If you haven't seen it, Venture Bros brilliantly parodies Jonny Quest specifically, and any other cartoon they can think of. The Scooby-Doo episode had me falling out my chair.
  • Now how could we even hope for any live action version to top the awesomeness that was Johnny Quest.
  • k(Bläck)
    I agree with DMuff!!!! A cartoon that was somewhat ahead of its time!

    P.s. Race was not a pedofile. No need to make that implication.
  • You're right, definitely no need - Harvey Birdman already did that for us.
  • Hmm, Dwayne would be a good Race Bannon, but getting good script and filling the other characters would be a major stumbling block.
  • Dwayne could pull it off, sure, but I can't handle Zac Efron as Jonny. Isn't he too old to even look the part, much less play it?

    Oh and before I forget - I thought Reefer Madness: the Musical was hilarious. Does that make me a bad person?
  • Amen, brother. "The Venture Brothers" is the most brilliant parody of "Jonny Quest" (and "The Hardy Boys") yet.
  • I also liked "Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical," but mostly because of Alan Cumming. He's just plain awesome.

    In terms of sheer hilarity, however, the original 1936 "Reefer Madness" wins out every time.
  • Oh, absolutely - my friends & I like to watch it now, and point out just which drugs these kids were actually on. lol
blog comments powered by Disqus