Elizabeth Banks’ Production Company Is Working On New ‘Flintstones’ Series
Yabba Dabba Doo!
Warner Bros. Animation and Elizabeth Banks’ Brownstone Productions are heading back to the Stone Age. As Variety reports, the team is working on an upcoming Flintstones series. While still in early development, it will be a primetime animated adult comedy show featuring the beloved 1960s Hanna-Barbera characters.
The original cartoon ran from 1960 to 1966 and was the first animated series to hold a primetime slot. The upcoming series will feature the Flintstone family, headed up by Fred and his wife, Wilma, their daughter, Pebbles, and pet Dino. Their next-door neighbors and closest friends, Barney and Betty Rubble, along with their son, Bamm-Bamm, will also feature in the series.
The show won’t be a remake, however, as it is reported that the series will follow the lovable characters but will be based on an original idea. This comes after several re-hashings of the classic cartoon. The most popular was the 1994 live-action film The Flintstones, starring John Goodman as Fred, Elizabeth Perkins as Wilma, Rick Moranis as Barney, and Rosie O’Donnell as Betty. The film also featured Kyle MacLachlan, Halle Berry, and Elizabeth Taylor in her last film appearance. A prequel followed in 200o with a different cast, and in 2011, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane developed a Flintstones project for Fox, but the show was never made.
New ‘Flintstones’ Series in the Works From Warner Bros. Animation, Elizabeth Banks’ Brownstone Productions (EXCLUSIVE) https://t.co/qv71zpWycY
— Variety (@Variety) July 11, 2019
This isn’t the only nostalgic project Banks has in the works. She also wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the new Charlie’s Angels coming out in November. Banks plays Sue Bosley, one of three Bosleys that guide the titular characters.
Banks spoke to People recently about the enduring appeal of the franchise.
“When the show came out in the seventies, Charlie’s Angels was an instant hit because of its blend of beauties with brains, kicking butt, in a job that few women had ever done before, which was detective work,” she said. “We’re taking that tradition and updating it for today. Putting women to work together to solve crimes, take down international baddies, and it has a lot of themes that I think represent some people’s anxieties about the moment we’re living in right now.”
The film will star Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott (Aladdin), and Ella Balinska in her first major role.
Banks described the British newcomer as a unicorn, saying “Ella is someone who just has incredible physicality. She’s six feet tall in her bare feet and exudes elegance, charm, grace.”
Banks is also working on a series adaptation of podcast “Over My Dead Body,” about divorcing lawyers, for HBO Max.
