First up on the weekend link-fest: "Disney, the Iger Years" is up and running and Variety offers its full report:
A little over a year ago, the Mouse's ears were a little droopy.
After a string of disappointments and increased competition from outsiders, Disney's top brass felt the studio was losing its G- and PG-rated foothold. It needed its mojo back and would make fewer pics, but ones that focused more on what the Disney brand had been known for -- family pics with a wide appeal...
A live-action version of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," tentatively called "Snow and the Seven," is in the works, with Shaolin monks portraying the little men...
While "Cars" and "Ratatouille" didn't make as much as previous Pixar blockbusters like "Finding Nemo," both were solid moneymakers, with "Cars" in particular proving a licensing bonanza. "Ratatouille" has now surpassed "Cars" overseas, earning $224 million...
Disney Animation Studios has yet to find its footing. March's "Meet the Robinsons," which bears some of the Lasseter and Catmull imprint as it was partially revamped under their watch, didn't clear the $100 million mark domestically and did worse overseas.
First pic made to start production since the new toon studio instituted a 20% layoff last year comes out in late 2008. Originally developed as "American Dog," it now has a new name, "Bolt," and a new director, Chris Williams. Original helmer director Chris Sanders defected to DreamWorks over creative differences with Lasseter...
Aardman Animation might be divorced from DreamWorks, but it's got full custody of the next Wallace and Gromit episode ...
After their bigscreen outing in "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," Aardman Animation's clay man and dog duo return to the smallscreen for their next escapade.
Nick Park's "Trouble at' Mill" starts production at Aardman's base in Bristol, southwest England, in January and will air on BBC1 at Christmas in 2008.
"Mill" will run 30 minutes, the same length as previous "Wallace & Gromit" TV favorites "The Wrong Trousers" and "A Close Shave." ...
Ratatouille continues to pull in coin across the world market, underscoring why the Mouse's motivation for picking up the Emeryville fun factory...
Disney-Pixar's "Ratatouille" opened in several major markets over the Oct. 5 weekend. Toon came in fifth fourth overall for the Sept. 28-30 frame, grossing $5.9 million internationally from 2,574 runs in 34 markets for a cume of $224.5 million.
Film stayed stellar in France, where it made $1.3 million in its ninth frame, cooking up a French total of $57.8 million -- making it the top film of the year in that market. Toon has opened in only about 60% of its markets, with Disney and Pixar electing to hold back until summer tentpoles were out of the way.
DreamWorks gets more love and acknowledgement from Paramount/ Viacom as some Paramount flicks get re-branded:
A structure may be emerging that theoretically would allow DreamWorks to solve its identity crisis while staying within the Paramount and Viacom fold.
Looking to soothe tensions, Paramount will start reporting box office receipts for DreamWorks titles under the newly created DreamWorks-Paramount banner.
...Relations between DreamWorks and Par came under ... strain last month when Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman told Wall Street that the impact of the loss of the DreamWorks team would be completely immaterial to to Viacom's bottom line. At the same time, he said that "we're doing everything possible" to make Steven Spielberg happy. Speaking at the same media confab the next day, DreamWorks Animation topper Jeffrey Katzenberg shot back that Spielberg is a "national treasure."
...DreamWorks is likely to cross the $1 billion mark at the domestic box office this year for the first time in its history, although that tally includes coin from DreamWorks Animation's "Shrek the Third." DreamWorks Animation was spun off into a separate company in 2004...
What the world has been waiting for: a big-screen version of video's golden oldie c.g. series Reboot:
It is really hard to watch the 1994-2001 computer-animated series REBOOT these days. As with just about everything else computer-animated, the technology has come so far in such a short time that it’s hard to believe those early episodes captured the imagination enough to warrant a big-budget trilogy of feature-length movies.
But guess what? Rainmaker Animation is doing just that...
Flash animation hits the big screen with That Darn Jesus (no, it's not a Disney sequel...):
...Future Thought Productions has produced a nineteen minute segment called "That Darn Jesus" in Flash for the theatrical screen. The animated segment, part of the feature "Universal Remote", written and directed by... Gary Hardwick (Deliver us from Eva, The Brothers), is amongst the first known uses of Flash for the big screen...
The Washington Post gives a tepid review to Jungle Book: Platinum Edition...
...And Pixar rolls out a trailer for its next animated feature:
Andrew Stanton: I’m basically making R2-D2: The Movie.
Have a memorable weekend.
Addendum: I overlooked this Forbes/AP story from a few days back, but I toss it in now:
Shares of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. declined Wednesday, after an analyst downgraded the stock, citing bearish expectations for its upcoming film, "The Bee Movie."
The stock gave up $1.69, or 4.9 percent, to $33.01, after Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield lowered his rating to "Neutral" from "Buy."
Greenfield said "The Bee Movie" may not do well abroad, and reduced his estimate for box office sales in the U.S. and abroad.
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15 comments:
Uh... Chris didn't "defect" - he was summarily FIRED.
Am I the only one who hates, hates, hates Variety's propensity to omit the word "the". How unbelievably pretentious.
I still can not believe that Chris was fired. He is an amazing artist
So is Dreamworks Animation a separate company or not a separate company? DO the profits stay in Dreamworks Animation or do they get sucked off to somewhere else? DWA stock doesn't pay a dividend so the profits are not going to the stockholders.
[I]s Dreamworks Animation a separate company or not a separate company? DO the profits stay in Dreamworks Animation or do they get sucked off to somewhere else?...
DreamWorks Animation was split off of DreamWorks (the live action part) several years ago.
It's now a separate company.
The rest of DreamWorks was sold to Viacom-Paramount after a deal with Universal-GE fell through.
DreamWorks Animation releases its features through Paramount, which takes a distribution fee that amounts to a sizable chunk of change. (Off the top of my head, I don't know what the exact percentage is.)
DWA profits would remain with DWA and, presumably, its share-holders.
> I still can not believe that Chris was fired. He is an amazing artist
Welcome to John Lasseter's Magic Kingdom. :-/
i love the new aardman title: "trouble at' mill"--as every monty python zealot knows, that is a reference to the immortal "spanish inquisition" sketch. i certainly didn't expect that....
Wow, that "woo-hoo; an artist is in control" euphoria sure didn't last long, did it?
Chris Sanders was removed from American Dog due to creative differences. He then chose to leave Disney to pursue another company that he felt more closely matched his artistic vision.
Just because a director has complete creative control doesn't mean that they are free to do whatever they want. They still have to make a great movie.
Wellll. Whether Chris Sanders wouldn't have made a "great movie" of "American Dog" is kinda hard to know, since it ain't gonna be made.
What's true is, when your vision isn't liked by the head guy (Lasseter), you either change your vision or leave. Chris left.
This is something that happens in movie making, it's not like it's that big a deal. But it sort of undercuts new Diz management's earlier statement of: "We support the director and his movie."
They support it. Except when they don't.
Sanders was not "fired." That is a fact. He left when the going got hard. That is an observation.
Hey Steve,
How goes the construction of the new animation building at Disney? When will it be done? What will it look like?
I used to look forward to "American Dog" because Chris was directing it!...
Now, I couldn't care less.
R.
oh boy. Disney needs this film to do well, really well.
i hope its good, i'm sure its an incredible challenge for Cris W and the artistic team.
...and for Mr. Lasseter his "first" test at WDAS. With the “princesses” will be easier.
We'll miss Chris Sanders, but Chris Williams deserves the opportunity too. The best for both.
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