Producer talks characters & rating for Robert Rodriguez’s Jonny Quest

Robert Rodriguez was hired by Warner Bros. earlier this year to direct a live-action Jonny Quest movie, and producer Adrian Askarieh provided an update on the project during an interview with Collider. Rodriguez is co-writing the script with PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN scribe Terry Rossio, working from a previous draft by Dan Mazeau (WRATH OF THE TITANS), and Askarieh says they want to present it to the studio sometime after Labor Day.

So Dan and I are now working with Robert Rodriguez, who’s directing and co-writing with Terry Rossio, and they’ve turned in a draft which is phenomenal. We’re doing a little more work on it; we hope to turn it in after Labor Day to the studio. And I really feel the timing might finally be upon us that we’re going to make the Jonny Quest movie. It really is an extraordinary script. A lot of the credit actually goes to Dan Mazeau because we’re re-writing his original draft, but Terry and Robert have brought a zing to it. I think Robert is going to really, really hit it out of the ballpark. He’s very passionate about it.

Askarieh goes on to say the film will be based on the 1964–1965 animated series.

We’re working based on the original 1960s Jonny Quest prime time animated show. That is our source of, not only inspiration, but the pool that we’re culling our inspirations from. I know a lot of people like The New Adventures of Jonny Quest, and that’s fine, but we are now focusing on the original 60s animated show. Robert, Dan Lin, Terry Rossio, myself, big fans, and look, there’s nothing wrong with it, so if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. That thing is a work of genius. We’re lucky to have it to reference.

The producer confirmed that means it will feature the main characters from the show (Jonny Quest, Benton Quest, Race Bannon, Hadji and Bandit), as well as Race's old love interest Jade, and also says they are shooting for a PG-13 rating before describing their plan for the movie as "Indiana Jones meets James Bond."

Yes. We want to make a PG-13. Again, I never want to be presumptuous to stamp a rating before the studio gets involved; that’s ultimately their decision. This is not going to be a kiddie action-adventure movie; this will be an action-adventure that happens to have a 12-year-old in it.

While I am interested in checking out Robert Rodriguez's big screen version, Jonny Quest isn't a franchise I'm overly familiar with. I've seen just enough of the '60s show to get most of the jokes from The Venture Bros., but that's about it. What other characters would you like to see appear in JONNY QUEST, and is there a specific storyline from the series you think should be used for the adaptation?