As you know, a lot goes into making a movie. Many of them are developed for many years, seeing various writers and directors and other talent come and go as the best strategy for making the movie is figured out.

1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit was no different. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring the late Bob Hoskins, the movie would go on to become an unforgettable fusion of live-action film noir and cartoon comedy. But Disney was trying to make the movie happen years before that destiny was realized. They acquired the rights to the Gary K. Wolf novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? not long after its publication in 1981, and at one point in 1983 had an adaptation in the works with Paul Reubens as Roger Rabbit (around the time he was becoming known as Pee-Wee Herman).

You can see a behind-the-scenes video of this very different version of Roger Rabbit below.

The 1983 test footage for the movie seen below was directed by Darrell Van Citters, with Peter Renaday (voice actor perhaps best known for 179 episodes of the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, mainly as Master Splinter) and Mike Gabriel (Oscar nominated director of the animated short Lorenzo and the animated Disney features Pocahontas and The Rescuers Down Under) playing Eddie Valiant, and Russi Taylor (who would go on in 1986 to take over as the voice of Minnie Mouse, the current and longest-running Minnie, and widow of Wayne Allwine, the voice of Mickey Mouse from 1977 to his death in 2009) as Jessica Rabbit.

If interested, you can read much more about this earlier adaptation of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and see lots of images and concept art over at Orange Cow.

Video

[Source: The Thief Archive via Cartoon Brew, /Film]