'Betty Boop' there it is: Quinta Brunson to star as animated icon for movie in the works with Fleischer family
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Quinta Brunson is taking a bet on Betty Boop.The two-time Emmy winner is developing a film about the animated icon and will star as the doe-eyed flapper, The Times confirmed on Wednesday.
The “Abbott Elementary” star and creator’s production company Fifth Chance Productions will team with cartoonist Max Fleischer’s grandson Mark Fleischer and their Fleischer Studios for the film.Variety first reported the news.
Brunson, in a news release shared with The Times, praised Betty Boop as one of the nation’s “most beloved cartoon characters” and said she realized “there was a much deeper story to tell” after she and Fifth Chance head of creative affairs Erin Wehrenberg met with the younger Fleischer.According to the release, the movie will chronicle the cartoon character’s origin and evolution through Max Fleischer’s perspective and will examine the “relationship between the artist and his creation as he navigates the creative and commercial pressures of building one of the world’s first animated icons, particularly as that icon begins to take on a life of its own.”Betty Boop, designed by late cartoonist Myron (Grim) Natwick, first appeared in Max and Dave Fleischer‘s 1930 cartoon “Dizzy Dishes” as part of Fleischer Studio’s “Talkartoons” series.
The Fleischer brothers asked Natwick to draft up a woman character for the popular song by Helen Kane, “Boop-Boop-A-Doop.” Natwick initially designed Betty as a dog’s head on the curvaceous figure of a woman and modeled her flapper hairdo on Kane’s own coif.As Betty Boop became more popular, Natwick revised his design to swap the character’s floppy dog’s ears for bangle earrings and shrinking her nose.
Her curvaceous figure, flapper ‘do and large eyes remained.Kane unsuccessfully sued Fleischer Studios and Paramount in 1932, alleging Betty Boop ripped off her voice, likeness and scat-sin...