As a commenter below ... and Reuters ... notes:
David Stainton, president of Paramount Animation, resigned on Wednesday for personal reasons.
Stainton joined the fledgling animation unit in October after 17 years at Disney, where he once served as president of its feature animation division. ...
Mr. Stainton was on board for five months. As a development artist who had worked with Mr. Stainton at Disney said to me recently:
"I can't figure out why Viacom would hire Stainton to do their feature work in the first place. I was never impressed with him when we were both at Disney. When he left for the Paris studio I was happy to see him go ..."
Mr. Stainton started at Disney Features in development, moved to the Mouse's Paris studio, then returned to head up DisneyToon Studios and ultimately, the feature division. He stepped down when Robert Iger brought in Ed Catmull and John Lasseter to head up the division, but had an office in the Frank Wells Building until (presumably) the end of his Diz Co. contract.
His quick departure comes as a surprise. Perhaps he did leave for personal reasons, and we've got the dynamics wrong. But less than half a year? That's a remarkably short tenure.
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15 comments:
Directors John Musker and Ron Clements are probably laughing about this.
They weren't happy when David cut them loose from Disney several years ago. John had a pointed caricature about their last meeting with Stainton when they left.
(Stainton: "We're just an anchor around your feet."
John and Ron's thought bubble: David sinking beneath the waves, lashed to an anchor.)
When Stainton left, John Lasseter brought John and Ron back.
How long before Lasseter regrets that decision. Will he let them have one more bomb or two before it becomes clear that being able to boss around the guys that used to be above him isn't worth the headache.
^^Princess and the Frog was NOT a "bomb".
Oh god, is this going to be one of those comment sections?
Princess and the Frog... $267 Million at the box office
Divide that by 2 for the return and it easily exceeds it production budget of $105 Million
Too many bombs like that and before long a studio has to start admitting these things make money.
Plus don't forget DVD sales and merchandise. Yeah, not a "bomb" by any means. People who say that sort of thing have no clue what they are talking about.
Ron Clements and John Musker are developing a new feature. All but one of their movies at the Mouse House have been profitable.
David Stainton and Barry Blumberg were together at the TV division-the both of them two meatballs short of a submarine sandwich. Stainton couldn't develop polaroid pictures never mind a major motion picture.
Stainton was a complete DOUCHE. Good riddance. Its refreshing that a studio finally comes to their senses and cuts the dead weight for a change.
Steve, if I understand correctly, Ron & John's new movie will basically be a CGI one but with some sort of 2D texture applied to it. Is that right?
Actually, it'll be motion captured, then hand drawn animation will be applied on the motion capture.
As long as its Stereoscopic 3D with Smell-o-vision... I'll go see it.
According to Hans Bacher's "Dream Worlds", Ron and John's "Fraidy Cat" was envisioned as a 3D-with-2D-look production, so there is that previous interest to inform whatever they are working on now.
"Fraidy Cat" was "a Hitchcock crime story" and the project that was cancelled immediately before they were let go. According to blogger JimHillMedia.com it was cancelled due to perceived lack of merchandising possibilities in the subject.
I guess that means someone thought plush toys of cats were unsaleable.
The concept art revealed in Bacher's book looks great, reminiscent of "Dalmations", but concept art always looks great.
"according to Jim hill...".
Which means it isn't true. Hill is a hack.
Jim Hill does at least sign his name to his reportings and has to live with their accuracy, unlike us anonymous internet blog commenters.
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