Popeye in 3D? 'Well, Blow Me Down'

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Variety reports that Sony Pictures Animation plans to employ cutting-edge CGI, 3D technology to resuscitate the squinting, pipe-smoking, spinach-munching Popeye the Sailor.

Avi Arad is on board to produce and writer Mike Jones is negotiating to adapt the tough palooka sailor to the big screen.  Popeye last appeared on celluloid in Robert Altman's  muscial-comedy Popeye (1980) featuring Robin Williams as the brawling sailor and Shelley Duvall as his S.O. Olive Oyl, which brought out the bomb squad to defuse.

Popeye, Olive, Bluto and Sweet Pea will all appear larger than life in the latest version. Baby boomers are calling the shots at Sony, which also plans to bring the Smurfs to the big screen, as if audiences didn't get enough of a blue fix from Avatar.

King Features Syndicate oversees Popeye, who initially was created by E.C. Segar in the Thimble Theater comic strip in 1929 and enjoyed tremendous box office popularity courtesy of animator brothers Max & Dave Fleischer beginning in the 1930s.  "TUOL" loved the Fleischer Popeye cartoons and is leary concerning how the politically incorrect Popeye will be transformed to appeal to present-day audiences. A spinach-eating vampire perhaps?

"TUOL" envisions Popeye reviewing the script and mumbling under his breath: "I can read readin' and I can read writin' and this is written rotten if you ask me. Och! Och! Och!"