Saturday, June 26, 2010

Weekend Linkage

The Grey Lady preps us for the Great San Diego convention:

... Comic-Con, entering its 41st year, is a tribal gathering of more than 100,000 comic book, science fiction and fantasy fans. They converge on San Diego each summer to dress up, swap old Ant-Man comics and ponder imponderables like “Klingon Lifestyles” ... This year, the four-day convention, which begins on July 22, will be host to what has become an obligatory parade of filmmakers and stars hawking their next big thing with extended film clips and question-and-answer sessions in the cavernous Hall H of the San Diego Convention Center ...

Despite earlier denials, Tim B. appears to be doing a new stop-motion project.

... While chatting about his upcoming film Despicable Me, producer Christopher Meledandri said The Addams Family is happening and that Burton is indeed attached. He also confirmed that Burton isn’t going the computer animation route and instead is sticking with stop motion animation as used on movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. There’s also a chance that the animated film will be released in black and white, however, no final decisions have been made on that matter. And, even with all of these details, Meledandri did emphasize that the film is only in the very early stages.

As Futurama returns once more to nightime t.v., the Times quizzes the voice cast::

Katey Sagal: I had known Matt from the “Married With Children” days, because he and I were both there when the Fox network had nothing but rabbit ears on top of your television. We had some history, and I just went in and read for him, and he gave me the job. ... I didn’t know this till years later, but there was a previous Leela [Laughs]. They’d already cast somebody, and then they wanted to make a change. I don’t want to know who — I think it’s better that way.

FuturamaThursdays 10pm / 9c
Recap-O-Rama: 5 Seasons in 7 Minutes
www.comedycentral.com
Futurama New EpisodesFuturama New EpisodesUgly Americans

(Perhaps someday TAG will rep the artists on it ...)

Mr. Temple of the Seven Golden Camels emerges from his work vault:

.... it's been a long time.

I've spent the last few weeks wrapping up the movie I've been working on for the past five years ...

Go visit him soon.

Moving on to Emeryville News, what was long a rumor is now official:

... [John] Lasseter will get a co-director credit on [Cars 2], indicating that he has provided a substantial amount of work to the project ...

The L.A. Times points out what's been driving the 2010 summer box office:

... [T]hree movies primarily aimed at kids and their parents are drawing a surge of significantly older moviegoers — many of whom are going without their children — in a trend that single-handedly has reversed the vacation season's box-office doldrums.

Thanks to the performance to date of the PG-rated "Shrek Forever After" ... the G-rated "Toy Story 3" ... and the PG-rated "The Karate Kid" ... total receipts since the first weekend of May are now even with where they were a year ago ...

Disney says 40% of "Toy Story 3's" non-family audience was ages 17-24 — people who ordinarily wouldn't make animated movies their first choice. ..."We aggressively marketed to that audience," says Disney studio chief Rich Ross ...

Have yourself a joyous Sabbath.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel sorry for what ever director works on a Tim Burton film, as they usually get eclipsed by the Burton name. No matter how he is attached to any project, everyone else fades into the shadows.

Anonymous said...

[John] Lasseter will get a co-director credit on [Cars 2], indicating that he has provided a substantial amount of work to the project ...

What it actually indicates is that he's tired of hearing people says he's become just a figurehead, and since nobody at Pixar can or will argue with him, he can claim any credit he wants.

Anonymous said...

Gosh, I would have thought it meant that the original director (one of the several producers on Ratatouille) wasn't working out, so Lassiter replaced him to get the film done. Funny how a producer on Ratatouille, that had a change of directors, has now been replaced himself.

And as far as Tim Burton goes, h e's "almost" a brand name. It means you'll see a film with visuals that have little to do with what little story there is.

Anonymous said...

Doesn't it make more sense, business wise, to hand over features to directors who've co-directed at least one previous feature, so they know what they're getting into? What is it with Pixar handing out directorships like some kind of payback to folks who've never directed a feature before?

Is this what happened to Rydstrom and newt? Was he also in over his head, and the Pixar brain trust decided to just pull the film instead of replace him? What is Rydstrom working on now at Pixar, if anything?

Anonymous said...

Yes, what did happen to Newt, anyway (apart from inscrutable Floyd Norman teases)?
Didn't seem to be as director-delayed as the projects over at WDFA, and most at the time assumed it was just the studio considering romantically-squabbling amphibians as bad-luck jinxed...But that's for lack of any other leaked memos.

As for Burton, given that other producers were flogging the Addams license, he's now become a for-hire Nightmares Before Christmas R Us, for those who now have only one image in their head when they hear "stop-motion". And if he's going to become a one-trick-pony, it would help if it was his OWN pony, and not rustled with some other ranch's brand.

Floyd Norman said...

Yeah, I caught some heat on that one. From now on I'll be Sergeant Schultz on "Hogan's Heros." I know nothing!

Actually, anyone who has worked in this business for a time knows that anybody is replaceable. A producer friend of mine kept a packing box in his office as a reminder of that.

J said...

So John L is overseeing two Animation Studios, assisting with Imagineering the Disney Parks and is now co-directing the next Pixar film.

Stretched thin much.

J said...

Not to mention Executive Producing every Animated Movie to come out between the two studios.

Anonymous said...

There have been many more director changes at both Pixar and Disney (not to mention DW) than have ever been aired, to be sure. With more to come, I'm sure as well.

Anonymous said...

Newt was canned largely because the story was much too similar to Blue Sky's Rio.

Anonymous said...

"Newt was canned largely because the story was much too similar to Blue Sky's Rio."

I highly doubt that.

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