In only five years, the tales of "Samurai Jack" have revolutionized action cartoons, captured the eye of Hollywood, launched a few careers and subsequently been largely forgotten. According to series creator and god of geekdom Genndy Tartakovsky, the proposed live-action movie starring the time-traveling samurai has indeed stalled. "It kind of got lost in Hollywood a little bit," the writer/director/animator sighed. "I have a very strong idea for 'Jack,' and I want to stay faithful to it. In Hollywood, the first thing people want to do is change things, and so the best thing happened to it — it died." Instead, the proudly stubborn Tartakovsky is excitedly planning to oversee the faithful version he's always insisted upon while putting the Japanese warrior back into his ink-and-pencil trappings.
"Jack will come back," he promised, "we will finish the story, and there will be an animated film.
" With Tartakovsky hard at work on a "Dark Crystal" sequel, he added that any success with that film might someday yield the live-action "Jack" he'd still like to see made. "If I make a hit movie, I can pretty much do then almost just what I want," he grinned. "If Bryan Singer wanted to do 'Samurai Jack,' they would say, 'Sure! Do "Samurai Jack." ' ... I did television, now I have got to do film, and then after that who knows?" Tartakovsky further added that the recent conclusion of his "Clone Wars" cartoon also marked the end of his collaboration with George Lucas, and that he'd have nothing to do with the "Star Wars" TV projects in development. "No," he commented. "I am all done." ...