Spent a chunk of the afternoon in various parts of DWA's Lakeside building, where the last four weeks of Puss/Boots is in production. And there is another feature in development on the fourth floor that has not yet been announced. Talked to some artists about it, but since it's not on the official roster I will keep my mouth shut.
Meanwhile ...
[DreamWorks Animation's] board of directors has rejected a proposal from Paramount to extend its distribution pact for another year, an individual with knowledge of the negotiations ...
Finding a new landing ground for Jeffrey Katzenberg's animation house, however, could be difficult. Most of the studios have animation divisions. ...
Whether this is a negotiating ploy or not, I have no idea. Whether DWA is planning to field its own distribution company, or expand into amusement parks and live-action, I wouldn't even harbor a guess.
All I know is the boys and girls over there need to have a Plan A and maybe additional strategies attached to several other letters of the alphabet. Because the clock is ticking.
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And there is another feature in development on the fourth floor that has not yet been announced. Talked to some artists about it, but since it's not on the official roster I will keep my mouth shut.
So, another one besides the following?
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
InterWorld
Dinotrux
Gil's All Fright Diner
Good Luck Trolls
Boo U
Truckers
Imaginary Enemies
Trollhunters
Alma
Maintenance
Monkeys of Mumbai
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
Hope the croods is working now-- after serious story problems. I hear they're considering a change of directors or putting on a director with a stronger sense of storytelling structure.
Truckers is in active development? I remember DW buying the rights years ago and promptly hearing nothing else about it.
Yeah, and they changed the title to "Mother Truckers."
The troll from 6:09 AM makes me laugh. Give it a rest, dude.
Who to believe?
To the first commenter:
A lot of those projects are either dead or languishing in development. Only a few are greenlit to production, and even fewer are ANNOUNCED as such, which was why Steve Hulett didn't say which one it is. Why be a jerk needlessly, when the business rep is doing the appropriate thing?
And P.S., yes, there are other projects also in development at DWA that aren't on that list. Just because you paid a couple hundred bucks to join itsonthegrid.com, doesn't mean you know everything.
Hope the croods is working now-- after serious story problems. I hear they're considering a change of directors or putting on a director with a stronger sense of storytelling structure.
False info. The film in is the capable hands of the super fantastic, amazing, animation genius, Chris Sanders of LILO AND STITCH and AMERICAN DOG... fame. Never mind.
Is still 'American Dog' a Disney property? What happened to the rights of the characters?
Anti-Chris Sanders/Anti-Dreamworks trolls should go away.
Steve , why do you tolerate this crap ?
Take control of your blog, man.
Oh its not just anti-Dreamworks. You should see the anti-Disney threads. They usually end up being like 60 comments long.
So, another one besides the following?
Excellent try.
Yes, there are trolls here. Big whoop!
Why can't you just ignore them instead of whining all the time and asking Steve to require registration to comment?
"Oh, no! Posters here are bashing my favourite studio/artist/film. I must stop them. Darn you, Steve for letting people comment here anonymously!"
Grow up already.
Yes, there are trolls here. Big whoop!
Why can't you just ignore them instead of whining all the time and asking Steve to require registration to comment?
"Oh, no! Posters here are bashing my favorite studio/artist/film. I must stop them. Darn you, Steve for letting people comment anonymously!"
Grow up already.
Ironic how people who who always say "grow up" are typically the least mature of the bunch
Same goes for "calm down"
Yes, dw is considering adding another director to he crrods to straighten out a stale story. Happens all the time. Someone with a strong story and structure sense, who also grasps the notion that communicating to an audience clearly is important. Most likely it will be an internal promotion.
Woah. Hey. Calm down.
I've found a few more titles listed as being in development at DWA:
http://thegrid.itsonthegrid.com/?keyword=dreamworks+animation
Grimm Legacy
Z Rex
Nursery Crimes
Monster Mash
Zombiekins
Intergalactic Protection Program
Lepre Con
Nano
Hiber-Nation
Beasts of Burden
Roadside Attractions
The Rub
Sugar Bones
Untitled 'Hal Lieberman' Project
Untitled 'Galapagos Islands' Project
Untitled 'Australia' Project
Untitled 'Mount Everest' Project
Untitled 'Birds' Musical
Untitled 'Witches' Comedy
Untitled 'Giants' Project
Ready, Set, Slow! (this is probably a previous or tentative title for "Turbo")
Imperial Death Monkeys (this was probably a tentative title for "Monkeys of Mumbai")
Shadow This (this is probably a previous or tentative title for "Me and My Shadow")
Note: Some of these titles may be intended for the live-action division of DreamWorks.
Yes, DW is considering adding another director to 'The Croods' to straighten out a stale story. Happens all the time.
So, Dean Deblois will come to save Chris Sanders' ass AGAIN?
I'll have to agree with the above anon. The second feature Chris Sanders is supposed to be directing without Deblois, is continually reported to be having major story problems. (The first one was 'American Dog').
Coincidence? I don't think so.
Sanders is all about quirky characters and visuals (well, at least his very specific and limited personal style--that's why Toothless looks so much like Stitch. I mean, can't he be more original or versatile in his art? All his drawings look the same).
Deblois is the one who has a good sense of story structure and pacing yet he is always underappreciated and underrecognized.
that's why Toothless looks so much like Stitch. I mean, can't he be more original or versatile in his art? All his drawings look the same
Yes I agree, They needed to do a design that appealed to the widest common denominator, Then they should have done focus groups to make sure that design couldn't offend anybody in the slightest way possible.
Heaven forbid a character design should be imbued with the personality and uniqueness that makes an artists style.
God dammit all these Picasso's look just like Picasso's! You'd think that dude could paint in more than one style.
God dammit all of Glen Keane's drawings look like Glen Keane drawings!
All of Pixar's characters look like John Lasseter!
No problem with Chris' designs all looking like Chris's other designs. The problem is that designers were hired to work on the film and Chris was hired to be a director.
Are his designs better than the expensive designers that were hired...?
Not a very good way to direct. Did he also do in-betweens on L&S too, like Dick Williams was fond of doing...?
So a director doesn't direct designers? They just draw and draw and they post them on a wall and blindly throw a dart and BAM that's the one!
And as an animator, please give me a director that could do inbetweens and pay me to watch him to it!
Can someone list all of the Directors doing these?
"Can someone list all of the Directors doing these?"
Yes, I would like to know this too -
God dammit all these Picasso's look just like Picasso's! You'd think that dude could paint in more than one style.
Comparing Picasso to Chris Sanders is plain wrong on so many levels.
First of all, Picasso was able to paint in a multicplicity of styles, evident in his early work.
The style that he chose to follow emanated from the modernist ideology of the era and it provided a critique and a commentary on society, perception and the nature of art. He was a real genius who revolutionized the art form and stigmatized the history of artistic creation.
Chris Sanders is nothing more than a mediocre illustrator with a boring and repetitive style. He could not draw in a different style even if his life depended on it. He art has nothing to say. And the two family-friendly films that he co-directed would be unwatchable without Deblois since Sanders is a lousy storyteller with no sence of story structure whatsoever.
^
Go away troll. No one is interested.
Anti-Chris Sanders/Anti-Dreamworks trolls should go away.
Steve , why do you tolerate this crap ?
Whatsa matter? You don't want free-wheeling discussion?
Might I add: You think I've got time to monitor every anonymous comment that rolls down the pike, you don't know very much about my day.
You think I've got time to monitor every anonymous comment that rolls down the pike, you don't know very much about my day.
Yet you have time to post a reply almost immediately every single time someone posts a comment asking about monitoring!
There's a whopping 31 comments on this thread. Not that hard to scan/approve. Most posts have NO comments, or one or two. Come on.
Baloney. I've been a reader here since the start. The comments come in 24/7, and the average thread gets about a dozen comments, not just one or two. Sometimes the comments come fast and furious, usually during the regular work hours, when Steve is visiting studios. He rarely responds 'immediately' to anything here, and we've all see advertising spam that hangs around for hours or days before being taken down.
This is often a messy, noisy debate. All the pros here can see through the fanboy and troll comments, and the really nasty people negate themselves by the nature of their poison. I think we can all handle things the way they are.
^Totally agree.
Just to be fair and interesting, could someone post all of the upcoming movies Pixar and Disney are doing too?
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