Pixar To Do Live Action

[AerostarMonk]

In what seems to be an astounding turn of events, Brad Bird, director of The Incredibles and the upcoming Ratatouille, has confirmed that his next film will be live action. The twist: the movie is being produced by Pixar.

The new movie is John Carter of Mars. Based on a series of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the movie chronicles the adventures of a Confederate soldier who ends up on Mars. The film has seen many producers and has seen at least 2 other studios before ending up at Pixar.

Anyway, here's the newss story that confirms it. http://www.dailybulletin.com/entertainment/ci_5775951

What do you think?

[koosie]

I suppose it'll be the new line of hybrid animated/live movies. The last last decade or so, movies have gone crazy and explored some real fascinating directions in this area. Funny to think it begun with Mary Poppins etc. I'll be glad to see what comes of this adventure. As for the source material(ERB), well that's classic and probably deserves the attention it will recieve from this.

[Partymember]

huh that was wierd. I tried editing my post but it just sat in limbo for a while. had to delete it. Anyway...

no Frazetta's not working on the project :( but,

yes i've been following this movie for a few years online, but i gave up when they put it on the back burner in favor of yet another Star Trek flick. I'm hugely excited about this movie!

[Ditchy McAbandonpants]

OK, I'm officially really confused, because I'd heard about this project before on Ain't It Cool News, back at the start of April, The catch; it was confirmed to have been part of an elaborate April Fool's by the news blog Upcoming Pixar. ???

If you scroll down to the bottom of this page from Upcoming Pixar's April archive (http://upcomingpixar.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html), you can see the two-part April Fool's post (the first stating that the blog had been purchased by Disney to be the official Pixar blog, the second revealing the John Carter of Mars project as the site's first announcement under the new agreement), and for further reference, here's (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/32107) the corresponding news item from AICN's Moriarty. I saw both of these articles after they had already been debunked as pranks, so I didn't think any more of it.

Yet now this! It's now May 1st, so it's waaay too late to be a joke this time...my first instinct was that Daily Bulletin had merely picked up on the month-old prank and ran it without checking, but then they went and actually got a quote from Bird that seems to confirm it! Could this April Fool's joke have somehow miraculously come true? :wiltshock: Frankly, I'm baffled over here...I'm guessing from the sounds of things that Upcoming Pixar's original April Fool's story was itself constructed from a number of strong rumours circualating at the time, hence its believability; it seems now at least some of those rumours have proven to have substance. Having said that, I'm still not sure how much of this might still be conjecture or misinformation; it doesn't seem like Bird himself actually said anything about John Carter of Mars, so I wonder if that's just a flawed leap of logic on Daily Bulletin's part...

In any case, this is a development worth monitroing. For my part, I'm interested in anything and everything Pixar and Bird so I'll be all over this if it's true, but for now I'm going to wait and see...

[AerostarMonk]

I saw those articles too. So count me as being as surprised as you. If it is true, and I'm hoping it it, just wow!

In other Bird news, it seems he's been recently attached to 1906, a movie about the SF earthquake in 1906. This idea has been going around for awhile. I remember hearing about it at the beginning of the millenium when Liz Smith hailed the idea as the Titanic of the new millenium. After being shelved for years the idea was turned into a novel. But now it seems it has new life as an actual feature film once more. Whatever the outcome, I'll see it if bird's attached.

[emperor26]

This a far cry from what Pixar is known for.

I wonder why they decided to change what they're known for and do something that can be considered risky?

In any case, I decided to save up my own criticism until I see the film (or the trailer for the matter).

[kageri]

What.... it... This is like if the Coca-Cola Company announced they were going to start selling milk.

[One Radical Dude]

Ugh, live-action from Pixar? Come on, Pixar -- don't sell out. :macwor:

[AerostarMonk]

You'd be surprised how many things Coca-Cola and Pepsi are tied up in, Kageri.

ORD, it's not so much selling out as trying to expand. We wouldn't have many of the shows and movies we all love if Disney decided to stay on just animation. No, the thing that is most worrisome is quality control. We have to hope they don't spread themselves too thin with a live-action production arm.

I have faith in people like Lasseter and Bird.

[One Radical Dude]

ORD, it's not so much selling out as trying to expand. We wouldn't have many of the shows and movies we all love if Disney decided to stay on just animation. No, the thing that is most worrisome is quality control. We have to hope they don't spread themselves too thin with a live-action production arm.

I have faith in people like Lasseter and Bird.

To me, this like Cartoon Network adding live-action shows to the network. :P Lasseter and Bird may have done good things in the past, that doesn't mean, however, that this idea will be one of them. Right now, I am very skeptical of this move.

[Bloo2daMacs]

Okay, excuse me for a second, but

WHAT?!!

That's insane! Pixar is a studio for ANIMATION!! Why can't they just make this movie a plain old Disney movie! It didn't have to be a Disney Pixar movie!

I really hope this doesn't backfire on Pixar.

[Invader Bloo]

Weird.

I can understand them doing traditional animated movie (which they will be doing soemtimes because Lasseter feels it's a dieing movie genre, which he's right), but live-action!!!?????

[Partymember]

Y'all never read the John Carter of Mars stuff i'm guessing.

Ergo you cannot appreciate the brilliance of a JCoM movie. Let it be. I don't care who makes it, just get it made.

[Ditchy McAbandonpants]

Like I say, I am going to continue taking this idea with a pinch of salt until I see incontrovertible evidence of its veracity, but if it is true, then I see no reason for it to be anything but a positive move. People worry about them "selling out", but it's not like they're in the position of Cartoon Network, to take ORD's example, where they're a company playing catch-up to its rivals; Pixar are the indisputable animation market leaders and a financial powerhouse of a studio, whose name alone can guarantee $60 million+ opening weekend grosses regardless of the content of the film, and whose movies are renowned for their universal appeal. For them to do live-action for demographic-chasing reasons doesn't seem to make any sense; frankly, as has been said, I'd say that the potential financial and artistic risk of such a leap into the unknown far outweighs its potential benefit.

So why take it at all? Because taking risks and not being afraid to try new and challenging things is how great artists mature and develop their craft. It was a risk for Steven Spielberg to branch out from popcorn entertainment to serious dramas like Schindler's List; it was a risk for Jim Carrey to move away from comedy to dramatic roles like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; then there's those whose whole careers are spent taking risks, such as Ang Lee, who in the last ten years has gone from period drama (Sense and Sensibility) to social dissection (The Ice Storm) to martial arts epic (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) to comic book actioner (Hulk) to gay romance (Brokeback Mountain). Yes, with experimentation comes the potential for failure and ridicule (Oliver Stone's Alexander, Spielberg's 1941, Ang Lee's Hulk), but if you've really got a vision, fear of failure's a pretty poor reason not to pursue it.

I have every confidence that Lasseter, Bird and co. are doing this for the right reasons. As a company, Pixar have already demonstarted more courage and intelligence in their output than people give them credit for, even outside of their pioneering of the CG animated movie; they took the time to craft a worthy sequel to Toy Story instead of the cash-in job Disney wanted from them, and have resisted the potential easy payday of Toy Story 3 until they had an idea they were enthusiastic about, even going as far as to cancel the project Disney started for them; they're willing to make full-length two-hour movies instead of sticking to the 80-100 minute figure generally expected of animation; via Lasseter, they've championed the increasingly unfashionable medium of 2D animation, backing the US releases of Miyazaki movies and spearheading Disney's current 2D revivial; with The Incredibles, they put their creative reins completely in the hands of Brad Bird, a newcomer to the company whose only previous credit had been a financial failure, and allowed him to totally deviate from Pixar's tried-and-true "buddy road movie" formula; even with Cars, they committed themselves to the movie the director wanted to make, even though that meant running with a far-from-bankable premise and a sedate, low-key plot and pace, for which they took a financial hit and media criticism. Bird himself is a filmmaker with brains and a backbone, too; he was a key member of The Simpsons production team in its pioneering formative years, and both of the "kids' movies" he's made have included mature, intelligent social commentary, from Cold War paranoia to litigation culture and the promotion of mediocrity in modern society. Moreover, Lasseter and Bird are not just great animators; they'e great storytellers, great scriptwriters, excellent action choreographers and visual directors, people with an understanding of pacing and timing, filmmakers who know how to imbue their stories with emotional heft, and craftsmen committed to the highest possible production values. These are qualities that will transfer over into any filmmaking medium, animated or no. As I say, I have every confidence that any potential move to live-action will be done for the right reasons, and they should be applauded for taking that creative risk; and though past record is no guarantee of future success, I also have every confidence that they'll be able to pull it off. Good luck, Pixar. :frankiesmile:

PS - Partymember - I reckon people aren't talking about the John Carter of Mars thing as much because that's the part of this story that seems the most uncertain; I haven't seen anything from any of the people who really matter to corroborate that yet, so I'm just wondering if Daily Bulletin haven't put 2 and 2 together and got 5. :( Still, if it does prove true, I'm sure there'll be a mass push from the uninitiated (myself included) to find out more about JCoM, so it soon might be getting all the exposure it needs. :)

[HappyFoppy]

What? Life Action? That's not Pixar at all. It's... Something run off the mill. Pixar should just do animation, not life action... Kageri's right - It's like Coca-Cola selling milk. :)

(Sorry if I missed some of this - I didn't read all the posts, sorry.)

[Partymember]

PS - Partymember - I reckon people aren't talking about the John Carter of Mars thing as much because that's the part of this story that seems the most uncertain; I haven't seen anything from any of the people who really matter to corroborate that yet, so I'm just wondering if Daily Bulletin haven't put 2 and 2 together and got 5. :( Still, if it does prove true, I'm sure there'll be a mass push from the uninitiated (myself included) to find out more about JCoM, so it soon might be getting all the exposure it needs. :)

I know, but i'm hoping. :(

[Volksdragon]

What? Most of my favorite movies are from Pixar. (Cars, Finding Nemo, etc.) If they change to live action.. well... I'll lose all faith in them whatsoever and move on to.. Dreamworks? Eeh. Shark Tale is good, and both Shreks were great. If Pixar loses my interest, I guess I'll start loving Dreamworks. Ah well.

If it was done with mostly CGI with a few Live Action parts like Happy Feet was, I'd be okay with it. But.. eh. I'll see how it turns out.