Pixar Rolling On With Plans For John Carter Trilogy

An Edgar Rice Burroughs news site has reported on a Pixar research trip to the archives at ERB Inc. in early November. Present were Andrew Stanton, the director, Mark Andrews, screenwriter and Jim Morris, producer of Wall-E and Pixar exec.

They are cited as confirming a full trilogy of John Carter films, determinedly loyal to Burroughs' work, and a release date pre-2012 for the first. I would guess that means 2011, after Up in 2009 and Toy Story 3 in 2010? Or will we finally be getting more than one Pixar film a year? After all, 1906 has to fit in somewhere.

It looks like there are now confirmed animation, live-action and animation/live-action combination projects on the Pixar slate.

Direct Download Link For New Wall-E Trailer

The first version of the new Wall-E trailer to appear has sprung from France - but, of course, there's now dialogue so only the captions are affected. Download it directly and then enjoy it immensely.

It took a bit of work to crack this one, I have to admit. But now I have.

[EDIT: And if that link doesn't work for you - it does for me - there's an alternative you can try]

Wall-E At Cooked Art

The Cooked Art blog have a great report from the Wall-E panel at Comic-Con. You really should read it.

Here's an excerpt:

Ben Burtt (the legendary sound designer) then went on to talk about how there is no dialogue in the film in a normal sense, showing a great featurette using pastels and digital paintings and sound to evoke the moods that would be felt while watching Wall-E.

Then, using a piano, went on to demonstrate the range of sounds that Wall-E and his wanted companion, Eve, could make. With these same range of sounds they displayed Wall E and Eve both in their own animation scene (unrendered, but very well animated).

To contrast Wall E, who is essentially a cube with binoculars and treads (which can fold up into his body so he's then essentially a cube), EVE is based on circles and ovals - EVE's head is a floating sphere and its body is an upside-down teardrop. Wall-E is rustic and worker class, EVE is sleek, white, and smooth. Stanton said that Wall-E's design was inspired by Luxo, but he didn't feel Luxo's design could hold an audience, so he wanted to play around with eyes, and during a baseball game, saw some binoculars and made it into Wall E.

They also break down a 10-minute sequence with a fair amount of detail.

Direct Download Links For The Wall-E Trailer

You need to see this now. This is the trailer for Pixar's Wall-E.

Choose from low, medium and high res standard definition and 480p, 720p and 1080p high definition.

Oh - and it has some of Michael Kamen's score from Brazil in it. Always nice.

A Good Look At Wall-E

A flickr user called 'inkista' has taken a few snaps of a Wall-E model on display at Disneyland, which you can see below. They offer us a very good look at his anatomy, for want of a better word - and the item he's holding in his hand gives some idea, I think of his hobbies on the abandoned Earth of the future. Poor old Wall-E.

You might want to flick through the snapper's other pics of things they saw on their day at the theme park. There's a couple of Ratatouille sculpts.

April Fooled

Upcoming Pixar hoodwinked just about everybody last night, issuing an April 1st post that was picked up as news and ran left right and centre:

Pixar will delve into the area of VFX and live action with Brad Bird creating his first live-action feature length film, from the John Carter of Mars series. Pixar will provide the visual effects for the film with Brad Bird directing and Mark Fergus will co-direct and write the script.

Of course, even before you get to that bit of the story, there's a dead giveaway. The post begins:

As the first news post after the aquisition of Upcoming Pixar by The Walt Disney Company, I have been given the green light to announce Pixar's 2009 project.

There is a lot of truth in there, which makes it quite a convincing trick, I suppose. Mark Fergus is working on the script, Lasseter is executive producing, but it seems that Andrew Stanton is the most likely eventual director when the film does go into production, not under the Pixar banner, some point in the next couple of years.

What's It All About, Wall-E

Jim Hill have provided a very exciting breakdown of the first act of Andrew Stanton and Pixar's upcoming Wall-E. The short version: this film sounds truly incredible.

The not so short version: amongst other things, the report reveals just what the name Wall-E means, where and when the film is set, who the lead characters are plenty more spoilerific stuff. Below are a few choice excerpts, which you may read at your peril, or you might prefer to simply get the full-fat version straight from the horse's mouth (so to speak).

Our story opens on Earth in the year 2700. Which -- due to the horrible way that humans have treated this planet -- is now just one massive trash heap floating in space.

...mankind has abandoned the planet. We're now all living aboard the Axiom, this massive spaceship that circles high overhead.

...mankind hired this enormous, inept corporation -- Buynlarge -- to supervise the clean-up effort. And that company -- in turn -- sent hundreds of thousands of robots down to the planet's surface to pick up all of the trash.

But Buynlarge's Waste Allocation Load Lifters -- Earth Class units really weren't up to the task. And so -- over the centuries -- these robots slowly began breaking down. Until now... there's only one WALL E left running on the entire planet.

Over the past 700 years, WALL E has gotten ... quirky. To be specific, he's become somewhat self-aware & curious... WALL E has collected an amazing array of human artifacts. Things like a Rubik's Cube, a lightbulb, a Playmate portable ice chest. But this robot's proudest possession is an old VCR. On which he plays -- over and over again -- a VHS copy of Hello, Dolly!

Everything that this robot knows (Or... thinks he knows) about mankind, he's either learned from picking through garbage and/or by watching a 700-year-old Barbra Streisand film.

...one morning... a spaceship almost lands on him. And what should float out of the craft but this sleek new unit, EVE.

It isn't 'til a sudden sandstorm forces WALL E & EVE to seek shelter in the very same vehicle that these two mechanical devices then really begin trying to communicate. With the trash-collecting robot trying to impress this more advanced model by showing off his collection of rare human artifacts.

EVE is recalled. And as she reboards her craft to return to space... WALL E latches onto her craft. And this robot -- along with the rocket -- is hurtled off into space. Which is where the real fun begins ...

...with the exception of the music & the dialogue that we hear coming from that VCR that plays Hello, Dolly! -- that's it. The rest of this section of Pixar's 2008 release is (in effect) a silent movie.

...wait 'til you see what happens to WALL E once he gets on board the Axiom and finds out what has become of mankind. How -- because humans have grown even more lazy in the 700 years that they've been off Earth -- we're all now just these enormous fat blobs who can only move about because we travel in huge floating lounge chairs.

There are so many other aspects... that are daring and/or charming. Take -- for example -- Fred Willard's involvment with this production. Fred plays the president of the Buynlarge Corporation. And this will be the very first time that a really-for-real human performer will appear in a Pixar production.

As I said... what an incredible set-up for what will definitely be an incredible film. I'm almost crippled with excited anticipation.

Jim Hill Has The John Carter Dish

According to Jim Hill Media, Robert Zemeckis and John Lasseter are to produce John Carter of Mars as a motion capture film (reported here yesterday) to be directed by Andrew Stanton (reported here weeks ago). They also reveal that the Zemeckis and Disney deal was behind the Mouse House's pursuit of the John Carter project.

Zemeckis, Stanton and Lasseter: how could this get better? Perhaps by signing Neil Gaiman to write the screenplay...

Don Murphy Spills Carter Beans At Chud

According to Don Murphy, speaking to Chud, the John Carter books may not be headed to Disney after all. Murphy suggests that Walden Media have the trump card in the ongoing neogtiations: they'll get the movie into production with a year and a half.

Further to my Pixar comments earlier, Chud are reporting that Finding Nemo's Andrew Stanton is the man being lined up for adapting the first in the John Carter series. They state that it would be produced in live action - though some other 'please don't name me sources' have sworn to me that this is not the case and the film would be animated.

Furthermore, Chud claim that Stanton's next film is Pixar's 'post-post-Ratatouille' effort, but I think it's pretty clear that, actually, his film W.A.L-E is the next Pixar release, set for summer 2008. That would free him up to have John Carter in production by early 2009, very possibly late 2008 - if Soderbergh can line them up this way, why can't anybody else?

I'm going to keep digging - and if you are either Don Murphy or somebody else who wants to go on the record about this, then please drop me a line or leave something in the comments. I admit that I'm a lot less interested in Burrough's books than I am Andrew Stanton's films, but don't let this declared preference put you off.

Pixar's Short Circuit

One message on one messageboard [EDIT: Pixar Planet?] started it all, and eventually it trickled down to here: some new news fragments - tiny specks of dust, really - about Pixar's W.A.L - E.

(Note: I have dropped one L since last I mentioned it, to reflect a shift in common references to the film)

Here are the compiled details: the star of the film is a robot. He is called W.A.L - E, pronounced Wally. His story takes place (at least partially) in deep space. The plot has been compared to Short Circuit. Apparently, Pixar have pointedly avoided the inclusion of any alien life forms. A teaser featuring W.A.L - E is being prepared and will, as expected, premiere with Ratatouille. Andrew Stanton is the director.

When Will Pixar Go Real D?

Hollywood Reporter are, er, Hollywood reporting that 200 more Real D equipped screens will be in place across the US by March, in time for Meet The Robinsons. Real D is an extremely impressive 3D system, employed in the last twelve months to bring both Chicken Little and Nightmare Before Christmas to extra-dimensional life. Disney have been solidly behind Real D, even calling it Disney 3D for the releases of their films - but the qurstion remains, when will Pixar movies start hitting the big screen with their third dimension intact?

Not as soon as I hoped, apparently. Ratatouille is set only for a 2D release, as is the 2008 Pixar film, W.A.L.L - E, Andrew Stanton's sci-fi follow up to Finding Nemo. Apparently, the first film that might be given a 3D theatrical run is the 2009 movie, which I hear is to be directed by Monsters Inc.'s Pete Docter and is, so far, being kept very secret indeed. And even that one might remain 2D if Lasseter and Docter aren't impressed by the 3D tests that they haven't even started yet.

So, to cut a long answer short: not yet. And not for some time.

[EDIT: And now I'm being told (by those anonymous guttersnipes that tell me things) that Toy Story 3 is a serious candidate for the Real D process. Toy Story 3D, anyone? No matter how many dimensions, they also suggest that there will be two Pixar films in 2009 - Pete Doctor's one, mentioned above, and John Lasseter's Toy Story 3, with the sequel first out of the gate, and making it Pixar's tenth feature length release. We'll see]