Freddie Prinze Jr. probably won’t be going blonde to play Fred Jones ever again.
The actor, wife Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard and Linda Cardellini all starred in two live-action “Scooby-Doo” movies back in the early 2000s. The films were both directed by Raja Gosnell and written by James Gunn, who, of course, went on to become a massive name in pop culture thanks to “Guardians of the Galaxy” and his new gig as co-CEO of DC Studios.
The two films raked in a lot of cash at the box office for Warner Bros., though they weren’t exactly critically-appreciated hits. While kids back in the day were fans, the projects left something to be desired for older audiences who grew up on the cartoons. In the years since the movies, both Prinze Jr. and Gunn have confirmed that the script for the first movie was actually a much more adult film — with Gunn saying it actually received an R-rating from the MPAA before drastic cuts were made to get it down to PG. The R-rated cut is a thing of legend, but, according to Gunn, “doesn’t exist anymore.”
With fans still holding out hope for a more mature Scooby-Doo, TooFab asked Lillard if he’d be down to do one with the original cast at Comic-Con last year. He said he would, before Prinze chimed in on Twitter saying, “Rightly or wrongly they don’t have the guts to make that movie.” Gunn eventually added to the thread, saying, “I think they’d do it if we asked. I just don’t think I have the time right now!”
While an R-rated film written by Gunn would be great, he’s clearly a bit busy with DC now. That being said, we still wanted to know if Freddie would be interested if the project could get off the ground.
“It wouldn’t be something I would do. I have zero interest … It wouldn’t be for me, man,” he recently told TooFab, before calling out Warner Bros. “There was too much bait and switch on the first one, the studio was not honest with me in any way, shape or form. They were not straight forward in any way, shape or form.”
“It wasn’t the best. I’ve been on two jobs where I had regret doing it and Scooby was one of them,” he added. Prinze has previously said the script he was handed when he landed in Australia to film was totally different from the one he signed on to make … and even considered quitting the project on the spot.
“I’m a really honest guy, man … when I get lied to, you’re dead to me, I don’t trust you ever again. I’m telling you, ever again,” he continued. “So some of those people would have to still be involved if it got remade. And that’s not any business I want to be involved with.”
“I’m only gonna work with people I love and respect and who love and respect me,” said Prinze Jr. “I only want to work with people that I love and respect or are looking for an opportunity to earn my respect and vice versa.”
While the finished product was not what he wanted to make, the actor said he has come around to appreciating his time as Fred thanks to the reaction from fans in the years since.
“I didn’t fully appreciate Scooby until it was seen and children came up to me, like, ‘Oh my gosh,'” he explained.
“And when I was able to appreciate the experience through their souls — because that’s what they’re doing, they’re bearing their souls, ‘When I was a kid, I watched this and I made my dad watch it 30 times’ and they’re sharing their life, that’s your soul, right? — then all of a sudden I was like, ‘Hey, man, we did good,'” he continued. “We did good, there’s legit millions of people that love this movie. It wasn’t the movie I wanted to make, but I appreciate that and it made me change my outlook on it.”
TooFab caught up with Freddie to talk about his new horror movie podcast with Jon Lee Brody, That Was Pretty Scary — a show which launched this month with a discussion all about his own film “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”
That Was Pretty Scary is available wherever you stream your podcasts — though ad-free episodes go up a week early on Wondery+. Listen to the first episode below — and see what he told us about making IKWYDLS here!
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