Roy Rogers to ride out and win a new generation
Last Updated: Monday, June 15, 2009 | 4:30 PM ET
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Cowboy actor Roy Rogers, right, with native actor Iron Eyes Cody in undated photo. (Reuters) It's time for Roy Rogers to ride again.
The family of the popular entertainer known as King of the Cowboys has licensed Nashville producer 821 Entertainment to create a film trilogy about the cowboy actor and his wife, Dale Evans.
Roy Rogers, popular with the younger set in the 1940s and 1950s, starred in his own TV show and many big screen Westerns and spawned a line of comic books.
A spokesperson for 821 Entertainment, formed to produce films with family values, said it believes the time is right to introduce the cowboy hero and his palomino horse Trigger to a new generation.
"Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and Trigger are quintessential figures of America, and we will introduce this franchise to a new audience while capitalizing on the millions of Roy Rogers fans worldwide," said producer Eric Geadelmann.
He said the films will be a family fantasy, rather than a western or biopic. A cartoon series, interactive games and merchandising are also planned.
Rogers, born Leonard Franklin Slye, got his break in Hollywood when he replaced Gene Autry in the 1938 film Under Western Stars.
In Rogers's westerns, the good guy always wore a white hat and won by shooting the gun out of the villain's hand.
Rogers died in 1998 at age 86 and his son Roy Rogers Jr. sold the rights to his persona.
Earlier this year, Hollywood announced plans to resurrect the Lone Ranger, another western hero.
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