Toy Story 3 Scrapped
Pixar's Lasseter quickly axes Disney's 'Toy Story 3'
Monday, January 30, 2006 - 12:16 AM EST
"John Lasseter, the creative chief of Pixar Animation Studios, has wasted no time asserting who is boss after Pixar's takeover by Walt Disney - by stopping production of Toy Story 3, the controversial sequel to the two wildly successful animated films," Jason Nissé reports for The Independent."The original Toy Story, completed in 1995, was the first major collaboration between Pixar and Disney. The highly lucrative partnership went on to produce the hits Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc and The Incredibles," Nissé reports. Disney's desired to keep the Toy Story franchise running with a third and forth movie, without Pixar's input, as the deal between Disney and Pixar allowed. "Mr Lasseter was deeply opposed to the idea but Disney went ahead, as it owns the intellectual property, putting 100 scriptwriters, animators and other creative staff to work on Toy Story 3 at its own Walt Disney Studios animation complex in Burbank, California... [the new] Disney-Pixar deal gives Mr Lasseter creative control over all of the two studios' animated film output, while still maintaining Pixar's independence.""On Wednesday, less than 24 hours after Mr Jobs and Disney's new chief executive, Bob Iger, unveiled the merger, Mr Lasseter went to Burbank with Pixar's president, Ed Catmull. He announced that Toy Story 3 would now be scrapped, without a word about the fate of the animation team," Nissé reports.
With the Disney/Pixar deal now in place, the question becomes what will happen to the various sequels based on Pixar's work that Disney had in development - most notably a third "Tory Story" feature.According to Coming Soon and a post at Animation Nation, Pixar heads turned Disney bigwigs Ed Catmull and John Lasseter "announced to Feature Animation employees [Tuesday] that the 'Toy Story 3' production will end effectively [Tuesday]. They said that sequels should only be made if there is a really great story that demands it, and should be the domain of those who created the original film."An Associated Press article confirmed said news - "One immediate sign of Lasseter's influence is that plans for Disney to make the long rumored sequel "Toy Story 3" on its own have been scrapped. If the film is made, it will be done by Lasseter and the other creators of the original film, the companies said".Bradley Raymond was announced as director of the film in which Buzz Lightyear would have been recalled to Taiwan after a series of malfunctions. Learning of a productwide recall, all the toys in Andy's room, under Woody's leadership, were to head to Taiwan to save Buzz from doom.
By Gina Keating
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Walt Disney Co. will scrap production of the latest "Toy Story" sequel and hand the project over to Pixar Animation Studios Inc. as part of its deal to acquire Pixar, sources familiar with the situation said on Thursday.
It was not clear how the change would affect the production schedule at Pixar, which has not announced release dates for films beyond the June opening of "Cars."
Disney said on Tuesday it would acquire Pixar in a $7.4 billion stock deal expected to close by this summer.
Production had already started on "Toy Story 3" at Disney's new animation unit in Glendale, California. The unit, dubbed Circle 7, was set up while the two companies were haggling over the terms of a new distribution agreement for Pixar films.
Circle 7 will not immediately be shut down, but its future is yet to be determined, one of the sources said.
Disney's current agreement with Pixar allows it to make sequels to the animated films the two studios made together.
Sequels can be made in three to four years compared with four or five years of development for an original animated film because technical work on most of the characters has already been done.
Former Disney Chief Executive Michael Eisner ordered "Toy Story 3" into production after the two companies broke off talks over a new distribution deal nearly two years ago.
Current Disney CEO Robert Iger, who took over in October, returned all sequel-making to Pixar as part of the merger agreement.
"It was really important to me that the people who made the films originally ... get a shot at making any films that were derivative," Iger told analysts on a conference call earlier this week.
Monday, January 30, 2006 - 12:16 AM EST
"John Lasseter, the creative chief of Pixar Animation Studios, has wasted no time asserting who is boss after Pixar's takeover by Walt Disney - by stopping production of Toy Story 3, the controversial sequel to the two wildly successful animated films," Jason Nissé reports for The Independent."The original Toy Story, completed in 1995, was the first major collaboration between Pixar and Disney. The highly lucrative partnership went on to produce the hits Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc and The Incredibles," Nissé reports. Disney's desired to keep the Toy Story franchise running with a third and forth movie, without Pixar's input, as the deal between Disney and Pixar allowed. "Mr Lasseter was deeply opposed to the idea but Disney went ahead, as it owns the intellectual property, putting 100 scriptwriters, animators and other creative staff to work on Toy Story 3 at its own Walt Disney Studios animation complex in Burbank, California... [the new] Disney-Pixar deal gives Mr Lasseter creative control over all of the two studios' animated film output, while still maintaining Pixar's independence.""On Wednesday, less than 24 hours after Mr Jobs and Disney's new chief executive, Bob Iger, unveiled the merger, Mr Lasseter went to Burbank with Pixar's president, Ed Catmull. He announced that Toy Story 3 would now be scrapped, without a word about the fate of the animation team," Nissé reports.
With the Disney/Pixar deal now in place, the question becomes what will happen to the various sequels based on Pixar's work that Disney had in development - most notably a third "Tory Story" feature.According to Coming Soon and a post at Animation Nation, Pixar heads turned Disney bigwigs Ed Catmull and John Lasseter "announced to Feature Animation employees [Tuesday] that the 'Toy Story 3' production will end effectively [Tuesday]. They said that sequels should only be made if there is a really great story that demands it, and should be the domain of those who created the original film."An Associated Press article confirmed said news - "One immediate sign of Lasseter's influence is that plans for Disney to make the long rumored sequel "Toy Story 3" on its own have been scrapped. If the film is made, it will be done by Lasseter and the other creators of the original film, the companies said".Bradley Raymond was announced as director of the film in which Buzz Lightyear would have been recalled to Taiwan after a series of malfunctions. Learning of a productwide recall, all the toys in Andy's room, under Woody's leadership, were to head to Taiwan to save Buzz from doom.
By Gina Keating
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Walt Disney Co. will scrap production of the latest "Toy Story" sequel and hand the project over to Pixar Animation Studios Inc. as part of its deal to acquire Pixar, sources familiar with the situation said on Thursday.
It was not clear how the change would affect the production schedule at Pixar, which has not announced release dates for films beyond the June opening of "Cars."
Disney said on Tuesday it would acquire Pixar in a $7.4 billion stock deal expected to close by this summer.
Production had already started on "Toy Story 3" at Disney's new animation unit in Glendale, California. The unit, dubbed Circle 7, was set up while the two companies were haggling over the terms of a new distribution agreement for Pixar films.
Circle 7 will not immediately be shut down, but its future is yet to be determined, one of the sources said.
Disney's current agreement with Pixar allows it to make sequels to the animated films the two studios made together.
Sequels can be made in three to four years compared with four or five years of development for an original animated film because technical work on most of the characters has already been done.
Former Disney Chief Executive Michael Eisner ordered "Toy Story 3" into production after the two companies broke off talks over a new distribution deal nearly two years ago.
Current Disney CEO Robert Iger, who took over in October, returned all sequel-making to Pixar as part of the merger agreement.
"It was really important to me that the people who made the films originally ... get a shot at making any films that were derivative," Iger told analysts on a conference call earlier this week.
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