J.J. Abrams needs to start learning to say no. The writer/director and head of Bad Robot Productions has signed on to a ton of projects over the last few years, leaving fans frustrated that he’s spreading himself way too thinly.
Deadline recently reported that new Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav shares their annoyance, as despite their multimillion-dollar deal with Bad Robot for new movies and TV shows based on DC characters, none have entered full production.
In what feels like adding insult to injury, Deadline is reporting that Abrams has now added yet another new production to his diary by committing to the BBC’s animated adaptation of bestseller The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse.
This will be the BBC’s big Christmas special later this year, with Tom Hollander as the mole, Idris Elba as the fox, and Gabriel Byrne as the horse. Abrams is producing in collaboration with NoneMore Productions, but even so it’s inevitably going to drain time away from his other projects.
And, right now, that’s a substantial list. Abrams has the long-delayed series Demimonde, 1970s-set crime series Duster, animated show Batman: The Caped Crusader, a re-imagining of Speed Racer, an adaptation of Hot Wheels, a documentary about U2 for Netflix, a Portal movie, Cloverfield 2 and (theoretically) Star Trek 4.
Will he ever get to his Superman movie and multiple Justice League Dark shows? DC fans can be forgiven for beginning to lose hope. Let’s hope at least some of these actually make it in front of audiences.