Plenty of interesting news and info at JimHillMedia as usual, including some very interesting rumours that apparently director Mark Dindal may have quit Disney Feature Animation just two days before his Chicken Little opened. This has apparently been denied, but it’t not hard to concieve of him doing this considering the response to the film so far, and the apparent Disney management scapegoating that’s said to be going on. Sources seem to be suggesting that the film needs to pull in around $US160 million in domestic box office to be considered a success - we’ll see. Chicken Little opens in Australia on January 1st, 2006.
Also of interest, and possibly some concern, are suggestions that Glen Keane’s Rapunzel Unbraided has been halted for serious reworking of story, character and overall tone. Reese Witherspoon was reportedly attached as both voice-talent and producer, but exited earlier this year when the project went in a different direction than she had anticipated, and now it’s said the film is in dire need of a clear story arc and direction. Witherspoon’s exit sounds like a good thing to me, the celebrity-voice angle is a very lazy way of creating character and drawing audiences, and as the article points out, this may just be the long hard pause that the production needs to refocus on quality story above all else. Read the article here.
Finally, there’s an interesting discussion of the cancelled projects and financial situation at the moment over at DisneyToon Studios (the Disney sequel factory), and also an explanation of Chicken Little in a special format called Disney Digital 3D, which may be a chance to prop up lackluster box office.
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