It’s been 24 years since Who Framed Roger Rabbit became a box office sensation, and ever since then there have been rumours of a sequel, which have been kept alive over the years by director Robert Zemeckis. Now he’s been talking about it again, saying the film is ready, and that “I’m happy with the script, it’s very good!”

It still needs the greenlight from Disney, who for unknown reasons have been holding back on giving the film the go ahead (even though it would seem a pretty good bet). Of course it’s now almost impossible that Bob Hoskins would return as Eddie Valiant, as he’s now retired due to health issue, but it could happen with a new cast.

In an interview with MTV, Zemeckis also said, “If I were to do the sequel, it would be done just like the first one. It would look the same way, but we would present it in 3-D in its release. I would do all of the animation hand-drawn; 2-D, but using 3-D tools. It wouldn’t be like Pixar 3-D. It wouldn’t look like that… this would again be another period movie.”

It would be fascinating to see how that worked, although they probably got a lot of clues from the first film, which was one of the first to make extensive use of computers, particularly to bring a dimensionality to the cartoon characters so they looked like they really existed in the live-action world and weren’t simply drawn on top.

Robert Zemeckis is planning to follow his first live-action project in 12 years, Flight, with a true-story adaptation that’s currently called Taking Flight, although as that name is quite similar to Zemeckis’ upcoming movie, expect it to change.

The project has been in development since April 2010, when 20th Century Fox acquired a book proposal by Bob Friel, which chronicles the bizarre criminal exploits of Colton Harris-Moore, aka. The Barefoot Bandit. The teenager was suspected of committing over 100 crimes after he escaped from a Pacific Northewest juvenile detention centre in 2008.

He became known as The Barefoot Bandit after a witness saw him fleeing the scene of a crime without any shoes on. The criminal is considered by some to be a modern-day Robin Hood, with tens of thousands of fans on his Facebook page, after such exploits as stealing a plane a flying away from the polive. In January, he was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for a string of federal crimes.

Dustin Lance Black (Milk) is writing the screenplay. David Gordon Green was previously attached to direct, although he was forced to drop out due to the fact his horror remake Suspiria starts production next month. (Source: THR)

While we’re still waiting for Robert Zemeckis’ first film since he’s come back to the world of live-action filmmaking (it’ll be Flight with Denzel Washington), he’s busy lining up a whole range of projects as both director and producer. Now Deadline reports that Universal Pictures and Zemeckis are teaming up for an adaptation of Andrew Pyper’s upcoming book Demonologist.

The story is about a professor who studies John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and accepts a free trip to Italy. A demon then appears to have killed his daughter, and he must go on an arduous journey to get her back. The book doesn’t even have a publisher as of yet, but Universal made a preemptive deal for the film rights (which should ensure publishers come running).

Robert Zemeckis will produce Demonologist alongside his ImageMovers partners Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey. It’s not known who will direct.