Ketchup Entertainment Picks Up N. American Rights To ‘The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie’

The saga of at least one Looney Tunes feature in limbo – The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie – has reached a happy conclusion in the United States, with Ketchup Entertainment announcing that they have picked up North American rights to the film and will distribute it theatrically. A release date will be announced later.

The hand-drawn 2d film’s fate fell into question after Warner Bros., which produced the film, decided that it didn’t want to release it any longer. In an unconventional move, WB farmed out global rights sales of the film to the European distribution company GFM Animation, which in turn has had success selling the title across multiple territories and countries.

Readers can be forgiven if they haven’t heard of Ketchup, the distributor that secured U.S. rights; neither had we. Despite the company’s limited track record with distributing theatrical animation, it has been around for 13 years and has released live-action features like Michel Franco’s Memory and Ben Affleck-starrer Hypnotic. This fall, it will also release Hellboy: The Crooked Man, as well as another animated feature, the environmentally-themed Ozi, Voice of the Forest.