News broke in November that Sony Pictures Animation plans to make a CGI Popeye movie written by Jay Scherick and David Ronn (The Smurfs, Serving Sarah). Variety now reports the project now has a director in Genndy Tartakovsky.

Tartakovsky is best known as the creator of Samurai Jack and the creative force behind Star Wars: Clone Wars, but he's also finishing up directing duties on Sony's Hotel Transylvania. The company hopes the Popeye feature will be more along the lines of its highly successful Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and Smurfs.

Created by cartoonist E.C. Segar, Popeye debuted in the comic strip Thimble Theatre on Jan. 17, 1929, eventually becoming the title character. He quickly made the jump to film, in animated shorts produced first by Fleischer Studios and then by Paramount’s Famous Studios. In the decades since, Popeye has appeared in comic books, television cartoons, video games and, in 1980, Robert Altman’s live-action musical feature, which starred Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall.