USA Today catalogues the animated features being made by six different studios.
... Blue Sky/Fox ... has two movies are in the works: next year's Ice Age: Continental Drift and The Legend of the Leaf Man ...
Disney/Pixar ... has Cars 2, Monsters University and Brave ... Disney proper is still redefining itself in the computer age. ...
DreamWorks/Paramount: No fewer than 24 features are in various stages of production, including everything from a racing snail (Turbo) to a full-length film based on that TV golden oldie Mr. Peabody & Sherman. ...
Illumination Entertainment/Universal: Addams Family, Hotel Transylvania, Arthur Christmas, Popeye, and Band of Misfits. ...
Twenty-four features in development at DWA. Explains why they don't lay a lot of people off.
Everybody else? They use different business models.
(I was talking to an IA person to day who wanted to know how TAG was doing. I said: "Television animation has come back, theatrical projects seem to be holding their own, and animation is more commercially viable all the time. So it looks as though ... fingers crossed ... the Animation GUild is doing all right."
Meanwhile on the live-action side, theatrical films are worldwide now rather than mostly in L.A., reality t.v. takes a bigger bite out of network schedules, and Southern California film-making is less than it was.)
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47 comments:
I heard Brave has two new directors since Brenda left the project. The USA Today article makes it seem as though she's still working on it.
Doubtful that any studio will cough up the real, inside skinny to a newspaper reporter.
24 films?
Quantity over quality I guess.
Anon at 11:12:00pm, they hired a lot of GREAT talents from Sony/ Disney, I would think that they are merely upping their game to compete with Pixar. They will eventually have 3 films up against Pixar's 1 film a year, with the top artists they got from the other studios they lay them off, I am sure at least 1 or 2 of those film will be a hit. Just like HTTYD/ Kung Fu Panda.
Not to forget, some films take up to 7 years to develop a proper story.
@anon #1:
According to a recent official Disney/Pixar press release, Brenda Chapman will still be credited as a co-director alongside Mark Andrews despite her departure/removal from the project and the studio.
She'll probably get a story credit as well.
As you probably already know by now there is a "Tangled" short in the works.
So, Steve is this one of the three shorts currently in production at WDAS that you've previously mentioned?
Steve, how's "Winnie the Pooh" doing overseas? Do we have any numbers?
The fact that Dreamworks is picking up Pixar and Disney story artists show's the company's commitment to the medium. At least people there can get 2 and 4 year contracts as opposed to Disney who lays off after every feature. And sure from the people I've talked to at Pixar--Dreamworks has higher rates and better health benefits. So people want to live better, so they go where the money is. If Disney would get their act together in feature they would hire story people and keep them and build a great dept.. But there are numerous smaller studios (around LA)doing features now and they're grabbing the story guys. People can trash Dreamworks for having so many features in production, but at least they ARE engaged in animation production, shorts, TV shows and they treat people well.
How's that Racing snail movie coming along?
Why do we keep hearing about "all those projects" in development at Disney when DreamWorks clearly seems to be kicking butt with twenty four?
Granted, they all won't be animation masterpieces, but you've gotta admire Jeffrey's commitment to the medium, and keeping artists employed. I honestly can't see why anybody would argue with that.
"Jeffrey's commitment to the medium"
Har-dee-har-har! Let a few of them loose money and see if Jeffrey's commitment to the medium is still in place. He's a dumb shark that eats money.
Any film that loses money will give a studio the willies. But it seems Dreamworks films have been making money--not all are blockbusters, but I'm sure that the Kung Fu Panda sequels and TV show will all be successful, allowing Dreamworks to have a few flops and still continue to have a studio that develops multiple movies per year. Monsters Vs. Aliens and Megamind weren't mega-hits, but not flops either.
"Har-dee-har-har! Let a few of them loose money and see if Jeffrey's commitment to the medium is still in place. He's a dumb shark that eats money."
IIRC El Dorado, Spirit and Sinbad all lost money. The studio never slowed production, however-instead stepped it up. I'd call that believing in the medium and putting your livelihood where your mouth is. Fortunately for us, he did and does.
Sorry you don't enjoy that.
They stepped up 2D animation production? I must have missed those... Oh no, wait, they dumped 2D (and a bunch of artists in the process) and went 3D...
Why do we keep hearing about "all those projects" in development at Disney when DreamWorks clearly seems to be kicking butt with twenty four?
Your always right on Flloyd!
Just curious - what are those 24 projects?
How to train your dragon 2,3
Kung Fu panda 2,3,4,5
Turbo
Puss in boots
Croods
Guardians
Me and my shadow
Madagascar 3
........ That's 12 - what are the others?
I'm probably not counting all the sequels?
Does anyone know if they'll be doing another sharktale?
Sharktale 2?
@anon above:
1) No, there's not going to be a Sharktale 2.
2) Here's the list with all upcoming DreamWorks projects that've been announced so far:
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots
Madagascar 3
Rise of the Guardians
The Croods
Turbo
Me and My Shadow
Mr. Peabody & Sherman
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Pig Scrolls
Punk Farm
InterWorld
Dinotrux
Gil's All Fright Diner
Good Luck Trolls
Boo U
Truckers
Imaginary Enemies
Trollhunters
Alma
Maintenance
Monkeys of Bollywood
Lidsville
Flawed Dogs
Rumblewick
The Penguins of Madagascar: The Movie
Madagascar 4
How to Train Your Dragon 3
Kung Fu Panda 3, 4, 5, 6
WOW - Thanks!
The only thing I know that Disney has is Reboot Ralph? What else do they have?
@anon above:
WDAS' projects in development:
Richard Moore's "Reboot Ralph"
Chris Williams' "King of the Elves"
Dean Wellins' Untitled Film
Greno's & Howard's Untitled Film
Chris Buck's Untitled Film
They also have "Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice" and a "Tangled" short.
Thankyou! Dreamworks sounds much better! I'm very curious about Dinotrux?!?!
Thank for the information!
Do you know what Pixar has planned in their future releases?
@anon above:
As far as I know, Pixar has:
Cars 2
Brave
Monsters University
Pete Docter's Untitled Film
Lee Unkrich's Untitled Film
Oh man, yes, dreamworks is killing competition!
Thank you for the info!
@anon above:
You're welcome :-)
Nobody cares if DreamWorks makes 450 million films a year and Disney/Pixar and makes just one, what people want is quality over quantity and no animation studio will never have both.
Jesus that Dreamworks slate looks like overkill. They got cocaine in the free food over there?
That slate looks like Dreamworks is just begging to oversaturate the animation market...
No way - dreamworks is definitely the frontrunner.
I would much rather see dinotrux, pig scrolls, punk farm over something called "untitled film," what a stupid title!
DWA has a deeper slate because DWA has an overall policy of offering production staff longer-term employment.
The other feature studios opt for narrower slates and shorter-term production employment, similar to many viz effx studios.
Disnee sux Dreamwurk rulez!!! RAAAWR!!
This board is so immature.
I think the quality of recent Disney animated features is fine. It's their development/staffing policies I have issues with.
But I've said this multiple times before.
Their development/staffing policies have been bad for a reason. They've made shit movies for decades, ran outta money, cant get people to work there, and took forever to figure out how to make good CG movies. So its taking a while to get back into a regular development schedule, and Tangled being a hit helps.
But cue Floyd to chime in and say Disney Corporate should have been shoveling MORE money into the sinking ship, as if that would have helped.
I think Tangled was successful because the fear of getting closed down for good finally knocked some sense into them.
NOW, we're starting to see some excitement and cool new films being developed, which is leapfrogging off the success of Tangled. I think/predict/hope that in 5 years, we'll be looking back and saying Tangled was the start of a slew of great films coming out of Disney again. I think 6 films in active development is a step in the right direction, and hopefully the crew working on Reboot can roll right onto Elves...
Steve is the "Tangled" short, one of the three shorts currently in production at WDAS that you've previously mentioned?
Why do you care so much?
But, if you must know, I count 4 shorts in development, including Tangled and Prep 2
That slate looks like Dreamworks is just begging to oversaturate the animation market...
What the non-professional fanboys here don't realize if that, for every 4 films in development, about one will get produced. I have a list of DreamWorks and Disney films that were in development 15 years ago. They're long lists. Many of those films have disappeared; some were reconfigured and made, others reconfigured and yet remain in development limbo. And some got made as planned. Developing an animated feature is a bit of a crapshoot, but it's a cheaper crapshoot than putting something into production simply because you have a production slot to fill.
Also, the development process can take between 2 and 10 years. So a list of 24 films might include some that are months away from production, with fully designed characters and extensive story boards, and also films that are little more than a premise and a working title.
The point is, a studio with 2 or 3 or 4 films in development is putting all their eggs in a too-small basket, because the likelihood that all those films will progress on time and get made is remote. So you put a small team on a variety of films, and keep the development going until they're ready for production. Too thin a development slate, and you force things into production before they're ready (as happened with American Dog/Bolt and Tangled). The result is increased expense and often unsatisfying results.
Of course, the flip side is if your development slate is too broad for your designers and story staff to handle. I'm not sure that's DreamWorks' problem, and their recent films demonstrate that pretty effectively.
To the comment above.
I would LOVE to hear how you explain Pixar's success?
Since one of the anons keeps asking about Disney shorts, allow me a succinct answer:
I generally keep my mouth shut about proprietary material. When I'm asked to keep my mouth shut, I do. Maybe somebody has told me about a Tangled short at some time or other, but I don't remember. I could ask story persons up on the third floor of the hat building about it, but won't.
Hope this is clear enough. But if it makes you feel better, by all means go on asking. Maybe some other anonymous person will answer. (Maybe they will know what they're talking about, and maybe they're just pulling it out of their backside. Who knows? They're anonymous.)
Project development isn't my area anymore. Labor and contract issues are.
I would LOVE to hear how you explain Pixar's success?
There was a time when Pixar had a lot of projects in development, relative to their limited production slate. Now they've gone through most of that slate, and they're also trying to increase their production schedule.
The result? Lots and lots of sequels.
Also, let's not forget that Pixar is vastly more secretive than DreamWorks. Do you know how many projects Pixar has in various stages of development? I thought not. For all you know, they may have a couple of dozen projects they're playing around with, too.
People say that Pixar has become so secretive with their projets because of the Antz/A Bug's Life controversy. They claim that Lasseter was so pissed that Jeffrey decided to also do an "ant" movie that he vowed not to let any info out about their upcoming projects.
Is this account true or is it just another animated urban legend?
Any stats on how these films are projected to do outside the US? I guess when the money supports it, all follow suit. Just look at reality TV shows following Survivor a little over a decade ago. (Was it really that long ago?!) It will be telling to follow the interest over the next several years to see if this trend continues.
"Also, let's not forget that Pixar is vastly more secretive than DreamWorks. Do you know how many projects Pixar has in various stages of development? I thought not. For all you know, they may have a couple of dozen projects they're playing around with, too."
Pixar COULD have dozens of projects development . I would love to know what they are! I wonder if John brought that same level secrecy to Disney when they took over? They COULD have a dozen more projects in development they're not sharing as well?!? Would love to know those as well!
Then it true means nobody's knows anything.
Even the great Floyd Norman!
This is not a fansite. This is not an appropriate place for an overexcited fan to mine for inside info.
This is a site for working professionals within the animation industry. While you can certainly participate in non-obtrusive ways, your attempts to extract inside info is an abuse of the intent of the site.
HAHAHA ha ha, ha, eh ... oh, you're being serious?
This site is no better than a fansite. Anyone with a computer can bitch, complain and speculate all under the guise as an anonymous poster.
For you to say it's for professionals is insulting.
Any professional working at a studio doesn't take these comments (and a couple of the posts) serious.
If you want to take it serious, for future posts - turn off the anonymous option.
@2:07pm: That is what happens when you dont moderate comments in this blog, witch is something that Steve and company should do.
I've suggested that you have to register to comment (with a union email address), but can still comment anonymouslyl or with a self-assigned username...
^ I've suggested that too but always get shouted down with cries of "elitist", spoilsport, etc. The moderator doesn't care whether the readers are union, pros or not.
No plans to moderate at this point. I kind of like the nasty free-for-all. At it's best, it's informative. At worst, it's like walking into a psych ward just before meds are handed out.
And anyway. I don't really have oodles of time to moderate.
I'm embarrassed and ashamed to be member of this union and the blog it manages.
Sorry. I understand McDonald's is hiring.
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