Green light for Jim Carrey's live-action '60s sci-fi reboot

It takes a certain gall for a studio to bury fresh headlines in their quarterly earnings dump, but Warner Bros. Discovery slipped in a gem or two this time. Now, among all the tedious shareholder lingo and the usual 2027 blockbuster parade (expect more from Taylor Sheridan, James Gunn, and another trip to Middle-earth), a single line in the company’s post-2027 plans stood out—one that’s been a punchline in development hell since the Blair years: a live-action film of The Jetsons, finally with a star and a studio-sanctioned name attached.

The Jetsons live-action film, with Jim Carrey on board to star, is now officially listed on Warner Bros. Discovery's development slate for post-2027.

Yes, that’s right: Warner Bros. actually went on the record—without the usual hand-waving in Variety or Deadline—that Jim Carrey is their George Jetson. If you’d heard about this twice a year for the last two decades, no, this isn’t déjà vu; it’s just the script passing through more hands than a hot cup of tea at a train station.

The Long, Odd Journey

The studio’s latest filing puts The Jetsons in the same murky basket as their “beyond 2027” prospects (think: Aegon's Conquest, the next Matrix, what have you). If you’re wondering about that phrase, it’s basically code for “don’t hold your breath, but everyone’s lawyers are happy.” Still, even that’s a first for this project: after twenty-odd years of false starts, vaporware, and producer ping-pong, finally, there’s something more concrete than rumour.

You’d have to go back to 2003 for the first real swing: that was Adam Shankman’s shot, which didn’t last. By 2007, Robert Rodriguez nearly directed a CG version. Fast forward, and the Warner Animation Group handballed it to Conrad Vernon of Sausage Party notoriety—nothing came of that, either. Robert Zemeckis got ABC far enough along for a pilot only for it to fizzle out before cameras rolled.

The latest run of whispers put Colin Trevorrow (he of Jurassic World fame) in the director’s chair with Joe Epstein writing, and Carrey in talks for George as of late summer last year. Only Carrey’s name gets a mention in this newest announcement; Trevorrow, if he’s still involved, is only there by assumption, since the studio won’t say a word about directors yet.

Jetson, Carrey-Style

Carrey, for his part, famously told Access Hollywood in 2022—while flogging Sonic the Hedgehog 2, mind—that he was getting 'fairly serious' about retirement, and then, in a fit of candour to the Associated Press at the back end of 2024, admitted the reason for his Sonic 3 return was that he ‘had bought a lot of things’ and frankly needed the cash. Money talks, evidently, and that Christmas sequel finally nudged his collective box office haul past $6 billion.

Outside the blue rodent franchise, he’d not fronted a proper studio film since 2014 (Dumb and Dumber To). For family audiences, most people still remember him as the Grinch, though that prosthetic ordeal put him off that sort of job for good. A George Jetson gig is a different beast—less prosthetics, more manic office dad energy, more Liar Liar than The Grinch, and comfortably within the elastic facework that made Carrey iconic without gluing him to a latex chair for 14 hours a day.

What Gets Made?

The caveat here is the same as always: no release timing, no start date, not even a properly inked director, though Carrey’s involvement has at least made it past the rumour mill and into the annals of official corporate paperwork. That puts The Jetsons one step closer to filming than it has ever been—though “development” is still a long way from the green light.