The Tomorrow War director Chris McKay has teased his approach to helming an upcoming live-action adaptation of the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon Jonny Quest. While not much has been said about the adaptation, McKay has said exactly what fans of the series hoped to hear, likening the project to the adventure classic Raiders of the Lost Ark, but with a slightly more adult-oriented bent.

"It's a little bit like Raiders of the Lost Ark, a little Indiana Jones, but it's a family movie-about a family, not just for families, it's gonna be a PG-13 movie. You talk about pushing the envelope for PG-13, sometimes with kid's movies they play it safe. If you're gonna do an Indiana Jones movie where the family is going out on these adventures, the kids are gonna have to get in trouble and have to be sort of be over their head. And the very first scene is a very visceral scene. I don't want to spoil anything, but the opening of the Johnny Quest movie is like Scream, as in - Oh, that's what this movie is about and that's where this movie is going to go."

McKay, whose previous endeavor The Lego Movie strongly suggest he could well be the perfect filmmaker to bring Johnny Quest to screens, even reveals vague details of what sounds like a very ominous opening scene. The Scream comparison may at first seem a bit random, but what McKay seems to be suggesting is that, much like the slasher classic, the opening will keep audiences on their toes, never quite knowing what to expect. At the centre of McKay's Johnny Quest movie though is a story about grief.

"The one thing we've never explored in the Johnny Quest stuff is the stuff about his mom and what happened to his mom. So, there's a grief story here at its center and it's about a kid who sort of has a family that he sort of put together. Yes, it's his biological dad, but everyone else is-it's a mixed family and he's put all these people together and it's about kind of overcoming grief in the middle of this big adventure. So, I'm really looking forward to that."

Johnny Quest follows the titular character, a young boy, who accompanies his scientist father on extraordinary adventures. The popular franchise began with a television series back 1964 courtesy of produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, and has since spawned comic books, animated movies, revival shows and all manner of merchandise, with some of the characters even appearing in such modern-day animated shows as The Venture Bros.

Further details of McKay's Johnny Quest adaptation are scarce, but the way the director is approaching the material certainly sounds promising, and could successfully reintroduce the beloved character to the silver screen.

Chris McKay's next venture, Amazon's The Tomorrow War, stars Chris Pratt as Dan Forester, a former Delta Force Operator, who is conscripted into a future conflict after time travelers arrive from 2051 to deliver an urgent message: 30 years in the future mankind is losing a war against a deadly alien species. The only hope for survival is for soldiers and civilians to be transported to the future and join the fight. Determined to save the world for his daughter, Forester teams up with a brilliant scientist and his estranged father to rewrite the planet's fate.

The Tomorrow War is scheduled for digital release on July 2, 2021, on Amazon Prime Video. This comes to us from The Beard and Bald Podcast.