Sausage Party Director To Helm The Jetsons

Everyone’s favorite futuristic family is traveling back to the big screen!

According to The Hollywood Reporter, director Conrad Vernon has been tapped by Warner Animation Group — the studio behind The Lego Movie, Storks, and The Lego Batman Movie — to helm The Jetsons, their upcoming animated feature-length film based on the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon.

Vernon is best known for co-directing the raunchy, r-rated animated film Sausage Party with Greg Tiernan, which Seth Rogen co-wrote, co-produced, and starred in and went on to gross $140 million at the global box office. He also co-directed Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted and executive produced Gravity Falls.

“Meet George Jetson…Jane, his wife…daughter Judy…his boy Elroy…” The catchy tune of The Jetsons ideally captures the lighthearted essence of the show, a futuristic counterpoint to The Flintstones that reflected the space-age optimism of the times. The Jetsons were the very first family, animated or not, to have a big-screen home entertainment system decades before it became a reality. They lived in a world of flying cars, floating cities and androids, all commonplace elements in today’s most popular sci-fi movies and television series.

The Jetsons originally aired in primetime from 1962-1963. When its popularity refused to fade in syndication, new episodes were produced and broadcast from 1985-1987.

The upcoming film will actually be the second time that The Jetsons made their way to the big screen. Jetsons: The Movie was released in July 1990 and earned $20.3 million at the box office. Over the years, Paramount Pictures and Universal Pitcures both tried to make a live-action film — with names like Adam Shankman, Robert Rodriguez and The Goldbergs creator Adam F. Goldberg attached at one point or another — but it none of those projects ever got off the ground.

Photo Credit: Columbia Pictures