Eugenio Derbez: 'Speedy Gonzales' movie fell apart because 'studios are afraid'

LOS ANGELES, April 12 (UPI) -- Eugenio Derbez was set to voice the Looney Tunes character Speedy Gonzales in a movie announced in 2016. Eight years later, the movie still hasn't happened and Derbez doubts it will.

"I feel that the studios are afraid that, nowadays, it's so politically incorrect," Derbez told UPI in a Zoom interview for the new season of Acapulco. "I've been telling them constantly that we love Speedy Gonzales in Mexico."

Speedy Gonzales was a Mexican mouse who wears a sombrero and speaks with a Spanish accent, though usually voiced by White actors like Mel Blanc and Billy West. Recently, Dino Andrade and Gabriel Iglesias voiced him.

Derbez said he tried to convince Warner Bros. that Speedy was a positive character to Mexicans. The 2016 development, announced by Variety, came before the merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery communications, and even before AT&T briefly owned Time Warner.

"The only ones offended are the Americans, but we love Speedy Gonzales," Derbez said. "He's smart. He outsmarts the cats. He's a hero. He gets cheese for his people. He's fast."

Derbez said the project is on hold. Recently, Warner Bros. made another Looney Tunes movie, Coyote vs. Acme, that it has decided not to release.

Like Coyote, a Speedy movie would have been a mix of animated characters and live-action like Roger Rabbit.

UPI will present the interview with Derbez for Acapulco Season 3 ahead of its May 1 premiere.