Jason Segel Wrote a Live-Action 'Space Ghost' Film

Twenty years ago, it was obvious that Judd Apatow‘s “Freaks and Geeks” would be a launching point for countless careers in comedy. But the last decade has proven that this was a group of actors who would only get more interesting with age. Case in point: Jason Segel, whose work in television on projects like “Dispatches From Elsewhere” and now “Shrinking” track a signifcant evolution in his work as an artist. And so it is both a little surprising and not-at-all surprising that Segel’s most recent project is an adaptation of “Space Ghost,” a character whose evolution almost mirrors that of the actor himself.

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In a recent guest appearance on the “20 Questions on Deadline” podcast, the actor engaged in a wide-ranging conversation about his career and his work. But perhaps most exciting – at least to us Millennials of a certain age – was the project that Segel is currently working on: a live-action update of “Space Ghost,” the 1960s cartoon superhero whose resurrection as an absurdist talk show host helped pave the way for a golden age of grown-up animation with shows like “Harvey Birdman” and “The Venture Brothers.”

In the interview, Segel suggested that the no plans were imminent, but that this was a project he was vary passionate about. “There’s a character called Space Ghost who I really loved as a kid,” the actor told Deadline. “He was like a 1960s superhero. He then was resurrected on Comedy Central as an ironic talk show host. So I wrote a live-action version of that that I would love to make.”

Naturally, anyone who has served as the human face of a live-action Muppets movie can be considered an expert on the boundaries of live-action entertainment and kid-friendly comedy. And while Segel was not exactly forthcoming on which version of “Space Ghost” he hopes to revive – the gee-whiz children’s character or the more satirical Cartoon Netwoork iteration – either version seems solidly in the actor’s wheelhouse, especially as we enter our third decade of superhero domination. But it does sound like the script is done, which means this has a better chance at getting made than most wish list festival comments. We’ll see if Segel can breathe life into one more version of this character.

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