Oh great, just what we needed. It’s that time of day again when we need an announcement about a major movie production no one gives a crap about. This time the project is being brought to us by Ryan Gosling. We’ll admit, we like the guy! He was great in Project Hail Mary, and we absolutely adore him in The Nice Guys. We still want a sequel to that. That’s not the project Gosling is pushing forward, though. In fairness, it’s not like it’s his project to pursue. No, he’s going with a live-action movie about Bamm-Bamm Rubble from The Flintstones.
Bamm-Bamm
If you’re not up on your Flintstones lore, nobody’s going to blame you for that. So if you don’t really remember Bamm-Bamm, that’s fine. See, in season 3 of The Flintstones, Fred and Wilma have a baby named Pebbles. Remember, this was a prime-time sitcom when it originally aired. So unlike children’s cartoons, The Flintstones had story arcs and other things like that. They could change up the cast and add characters, whereas normally you wouldn’t see that in children’s fodder. So Fred and Wilma have their kid, and the dynamic changes with new storylines and all that.
Come season 4, the writers apparently decided that Barney and Betty needed a child as well. Mind you, Pebbles didn’t really happen until the end of season 3. So this isn’t like a situation where they come up with a kid, milk that storyline for a couple of years, and then introduce another kid. No, this was a decision to throw another kid into the mix, maybe so Barney and Betty wouldn’t feel left out? We’re really not sure what the writing process behind this was. But regardless, only a couple episodes into season 4, we get Bamm-Bamm. Even more odd, it doesn’t exactly come into the world in the usual way. The Rubbles make a wish for a baby, and then suddenly he shows up on the doorstep like the next day. Someone just leaves the kid there and tells Betty and Barney through a note to show him some love.
More Than Just A Plot Device
In another plot twist, though, Bamm-Bamm is not some ordinary toddler. Apparently this child has superhuman strength, the likes of which the world has never seen. He’s just a destructive menace who, in a more serious story, would potentially bring ruin to everyone around him. It’s been a while since we watched The Flintstones, so we couldn’t exactly tell you if they treat this as just a normal thing or not. We don’t remember if there’s a storyline where they question everything they know about the world, because their child can pick up cars. Maybe there was. Then again, this is a show that, in its final season, introduced a green alien that could grant wishes, that only Fred and Barney could see.
All this is to say, Bamm-Bamm is a tertiary character at best. Yes, he did get his own spinoff with Pebbles at one point. In 1971 we got The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show. It lasted for all of 16 episodes, which is probably, no, definitely, 16 more episodes than it deserved. It does exist, though, and it shows a teenage Bamm-Bamm dating Pebbles, and the two of them starting their own band together. To further make things worse, they ended up getting married in a made-for-TV movie, I Yabba-Dabba Do! That was in 1993 of all years. There’s more we could get into with a sequel film and a Christmas follow-up, but we’re just going to end it here. This is a rabbit hole nobody needs to go into, and yet it feels like somebody’s indulging Ryan Gosling and doing this because Gosling wants to make a movie.
Reboots
This project is so early on in development, but it doesn’t have a writer attached to it yet. Reportedly, they’re looking for one. So maybe that’s the good news. Somebody’s going to get a job out of this, potentially. But seriously, why is this happening? Why is it even up for discussion? Who the hell is looking for a Flintstones movie at this point in time?
We recently reported on a Jetsons film with Jim Carrey attached to star as George. That has some questionable wisdom behind it too, but considering Jim Carrey hasn’t done anything besides play Doctor Robotnik for the better part of a decade, you can potentially sell a movie behind that. But this would be like making a Jetsons movie if you made the film about Elroy. Nobody cares about Elroy Jetson!!!
Is This The Right Property?
We would like to know Gosling’s thought process on this one. Maybe he grew up as a huge fan of The Flintstones and it just so happens that he really loves the character of Bamm-Bamm. Bit of an odd flex for sure, but you can’t judge a person for who their favorite character is on a show. Everybody’s got to like somebody. But there is a much greater leap and step in The logical thought process of somebody to say, “I wonder what Bamm-Bamm’s life is like as an adult? We should really make a movie about that.” That’s the talk of crazy people. Those are the kind of thoughts you bring to a professional therapist so that your employer doesn’t start to worry about you when you voice them in the office.
We recently did a piece about Hollywood reviving the wrong properties. The Masters of the Universe movie was way too big to be profitable given the niche market of the fanbase. Meanwhile the talk of a Jem and the Holograms revival seems like an effort to just burn money on something no one is asking for, and bombed horrifically the last time someone tried it. With studios trying to take more risk averse strategies, why is anyone even going to consider a Bamm-Bamm film? Well, because Ryan Gosling of course. After all, he’s the new Ghost Rider. That carries dome privileges with it.
The recent successes of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey have spurred conversation about how the movie industry is recovering. This summer has been an amazing one for box office successes, but it’s been because of filmmakers making movies that people actually want to see. People want to see Spider-Man. They want to see indie horror. They don’t want to see goddamn Bamm-Bamm.
We’ll keep you updated if this project goes anywhere or becomes extinct.
