Warner Bros is trying again in its long-running attempt to turn the Hanna-Barbera boy hero Jonny Quest into a live-action family adventure franchise. The studio has set Robert Rodriguez to direct the film, and he and Terry Rossio are rewriting a Dan Mazeau draft that made the Black List. Dan Lin and Prime Universe’s Adrian Askarieh are producing.

Jonny is the kid who accompanied his scientist father, their bodyguard Race Bannon and Jonny’s pal Hadji on a series of global adventures that always involved some evil conspiracy that forced Jonny to work his way out of danger. Created and designed by Doug Wildey, Jonny Quest was wildly popular when first introduced. The series ran for a season on ABC primetime in 1964 and lives forever in reruns, an updated animated series, and in comic book and merchandising incarnations. Warner Bros, which got the Hanna-Barbera catalog in the Turner acquisition, has tried numerous times to get this right. Richard Donner took a shot at it; Peter Segal did too. A version had Zac Efron poised to play the title character and Dwayne Johnson to play Bannon. This seems like a good idea; Rodriguez has the playful sensibility in general and was successful in that kid empowerment theme with his Spy Kids films.