America’s most famous spinach eater – Popeye the Sailor Man – is coming back to the silver screen in 3D, thanks to Sony Pictures Animation. Fresh faced screenwriter Mike Jones told Variety that he is a, “unabashed, lifelong Popeye fan,” and that “Introducing this squinty-eyed sailor to a new generation also means reintroducing him to those who, like me, grew up with him.”
Popeye was created by Elzie Crisler Segar in 1929 and he’s been showing up on a semi regular basis in comic strips and books, TV shows, video games and movies ever since. Popeye’s look hasn’t changed much, his red hair, enormously muscled arms and a corn cop pipe wedged into his glowering mouth have stayed much the same for almost 70 years. So has his love of spinach, which he slurps from a can whenever he needs a boost of strength to deal with the latest crisis in his cartoon world. In fact, the biggest change to the character since its creation has been Popeye’s right eye, which early cartoon strips clearly refer to as missing while contemporary versions of the character give him two eyes, one of which he habitually squints.
The last time Popeye graced the silver screen was a live action take in 1980 directed by Robert Altman, a rare detour for the famous art director. This latest take is in the hands of Avi Arad, who is famous for taking Marvel Entertainment and turning it into a franchise producing machine whose offerings, like the “X-Men” and “Spider-Man” series, have found commercial and critical success.
