LOS ANGELES, Aug 31 — Yabba dabba doo! Ryan Gosling is getting ready to take a trip back to the Stone Age, producing a new live-action Flintstones movie with a surprising focus — the Rubble family’s once tiny, troublemaking son, Bamm-Bamm.
Gosling and his Open Invite production partner Jessie Henderson are producing the Warner Bros. project, which is still in the early stages and currently looking for a screenwriter, according to US entertainment industry media Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter.
Plot details are being kept under wraps, but the story is expected to centre on Bamm-Bamm Rubble, the son of Fred Flintstone’s best friend Barney and Betty Rubble.
For anyone who grew up with the original cartoon, Bamm-Bamm was the famously strong toddler who could regularly be heard shouting his trademark “Bamm-Bamm!” while swinging his club.
Set in the Stone Age, the cartoon followed Fred and Wilma Flintstone, their daughter Pebbles, pet dinosaur Dino and their neighbours and best friends Barney, Betty and Bamm-Bamm Rubble.
The franchise has already made the leap into live action, with Universal’s 1994 The Flintstones starring John Goodman as Fred and Rick Moranis as Barney.
The film, with Steven Spielberg as executive producer, earned US$340 million (RM1.43 billion) worldwide and was followed by the 2000 prequel The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, which featured a new cast.
The latest attempt to revive the franchise comes after Fox announced an animated sequel series called Bedrock in 2021, with Elizabeth Banks attached to voice Pebbles.
That project was later abandoned, leaving Bamm-Bamm to apparently get his own shot at a comeback.
With Gosling attached as producer and Bamm-Bamm reportedly at the centre of the story, the prehistoric neighbours may soon be trading their cartoon cave for the big screen once again.
