Warner Bros. Hasn't Even Responded To The SMALLVILLE Animated Series Pitch
Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum have developed an animated series that will continue the story of the hit DC series Smallville. They have pitched this project to Warner Bros. and it’s just been a waiting game.
Welling recently offered a discouraging update on the project confirming that the series hasn’t moved forward because Warner Bros. hasn’t even responded to their pitch, and to move forward, they need the studio’s permission to proceed with the project.
During a recent interview with ScreenRant, Welling said: “We want it to work. The honest answer is we have not been able to get Warner Brothers to give us the thumbs up. We need their permission.”
When asked for more details, the actor said: “We haven’t even gotten a response. It’s the weirdest thing because it is more of a fan-driven idea. It’s not going to be a blockbuster. It’s not going to be a financial windfall for any of us.
“We all like each other, we all like working together, and if we could do it, it’d be fun. But Warner Bros. — and I’m not hating on them — they just haven’t gotten back to us. It’s not a priority for them, It’s like a not-returning-phone-calls-thing.”
It’s discouraging to hear that there is even no conversation going on between the two parties to try and make this happen. From personal experience, WB is just one of those frustrating studios to work with.
Welling previously said of the project: "I'll tell you where it's at: We need Warner Bros. and DC to let us do it. We've got Al [Gough] and Miles [Millar], who are very busy doing a TV show called Wednesday. But they created Smallville, they want to write it. We just need to go ahead from DC and Warner Bros."
"Listen, this is a passion project. It's not going to be a blockbuster, it's for the fans. All the actors want to do the voices of the characters - we're all in. We just need them to let us use the property."
He added: "We've been talking about it for a few years. We want to do a Smallville comic book and animated series, and then we would all voice the characters. We’ve already got an artist, and we have a poster."
"It would be more of a labor of love. It’s not going to make a billion dollars, so the studio is kind of like [grumbles]. Maybe we can do a - not a GoFundMe, because that’s financial - but like a petition. We can petition Warner Bros. to let us do it."
The original series starred Rosembaum as Lex Luthor, Welling as Clark Kent, Kristin Kreuk as Lana Lang, Eric Johnson, Sam Jones III, Allison Mack, Annette O’Toole, John Schneider, John Glover, Jensen Ackles, Erica Durance, Justin Hartley, and Callum Blue, among others.