Hollywood’s long flirtation with the future just found its latest suitor. Jim Carrey is in talks to star in a live-action version of “The Jetsons,” with Colin Trevorrow set to direct for Warner Bros. The project marks the latest attempt to revive Hanna-Barbera’s 1962 animated sitcom — a kitschy, optimistic vision of the Space Age that has resisted translation to live-action for decades.
The original “Jetsons” was the atomic-era counterpoint to “The Flintstones,” reimagining suburbia with flying cars, robot maids, and conveyor-belt breakfasts. Trevorrow, whose resume spans from “Jurassic World” to “The Book of Henry,” is reportedly on board to co-write and direct, with the film now in early development at Warner Bros. Carrey would play George Jetson, the hapless patriarch of Orbit City’s futuristic family, blending the elastic physical comedy that defined “The Mask” with the melancholy edge of his later work in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”
The studio hasn’t confirmed additional casting or a production timeline, but the combination of Trevorrow’s blockbuster instincts and Carrey’s mercurial energy suggests a big-concept family adventure — one straddling irony and sincerity. Past attempts at modernization have faltered, including a long-gestating iteration from Robert Rodriguez, who was once attached to direct a live-action version that never materialized. Other efforts have included a proposed CG feature and multiple television revivals, all struggling to update the pastel optimism of the original series for a future that no longer feels quite so bright.
For Trevorrow, whose post-‘Jurassic’ career has been in a recalibration phase, “The Jetsons” offers a return to large-scale spectacle with a nostalgic twist. For Carrey — who’s hinted at retirement more than once — it could be a chance to channel both the mania and melancholy that made him one of the most unpredictable movie stars of the 1990s and 2000s. Whether this long-dormant property can finally lift off remains to be seen, but if it does, the skies of Orbit City might finally belong to the strangest duo imaginable: Trevorrow’s polished futurism and Carrey’s chaos.
