In 1985, the Graphics Group in LucasFilm‘s Computer Division was on the chopping block. As Robert Sutton relates, George Lucas wasn’t confident that computer animated films had much of a future, and as a result, department heads Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith (two pioneers of extreme importance) were being pressured to fire some of their workers. Instead, they offered up their own names to be culled, which saved the entire division. At least for that moment. It’s unclear what fate might have fallen on the Graphics Group had the Computer Division not been purchased in 1986 by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs for a tidy $5m. Of course, we know this department by another name: Pixar. Jobs put his money down on a company he believed in, and the result stands currently as 26 Academy Awards, an absurd amount of box office money, a legion of fans worldwide and nearly complete animation dominance in the movie world. In 2006, Disney bought Pixar at an evaluated worth of $7.4b, making Jobs the largest Disney shareholder. He is stepping down as Apple’s CEO today, and even though it’s hard to say what kind of effect that might have on the film world, Jobs’s legacy already extends far beyond Pixar and beyond The Mouse.

It may be considered old news since it happened a whole week ago, but Disney passing on The Lone Ranger is a remarkably good sign. It’s noteworthy for more than the average news of the day because it hints at a crack in the current foundation of studio thinking. It’s barely ever publicized, since a studio refusing to make a film is hardly newsworthy, but a project this high-profile, featuring talent like Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski, that’s been reported on so thoroughly used to be a done deal. Now, that’s not the case. It’s not like this is the end of the story crisis or anything, but it’s the Hollywood equivalent of a crack addict putting down the pipe, and it should be celebrated.

Despite the fact that the storytelling went off the rails and the budget’s bloated to bursting, Gore Verbinski’s Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy ended up making Disney more money than most spoiled aristocrats will see in their lifetime. Given his rep as a franchise builder, I thought it was pretty shocking when Disney recently pulled the plug on his upcoming movie The Lone Ranger. Yeah, a $250m budget is ridiculously high for a movie about a couple of guys on horses, but with Verbinski teaming back up with his Pirates star Johnny Depp, and The Lone Ranger already being a property that people are familiar with, I figured this project would be bullet proof. Not so, as according to THR, a Lone Ranger with a $250m budget would have to hit upwards of $800 million to make a profit after all of the necessary marketing costs and shady backroom money trading were handled. Despite the fact that a movie needing to make more than three times its budget to turn a profit is ridiculous, and the surest sign that the studio system is broken, that’s just the way it is. And with John Favreau’s Cowboys and Aliens not coming close to that number this summer, pumping so much money into a Western isn’t a risk Disney is looking to take, even in their Pirates of the Caribbean and Alice in Wonderland magic man Johnny Depp is on board.

The new trend in Hollywood seems to be live action adaptations of tales starring Disney princesses. First Disney hit it big themselves with their Tim Burton directed 3D version of Alice in Wonderland. Then, a couple of other studios got the jump on them for the next round by announcing several different Snow White projects. Eventually Disney threw their hat into that ring with their own take on the tale, The Order of the Seven, and not one to be outdone for long, they’ve become to first one out of the gate for the next wave of princess movies as well. If one of those other studios wants to put a Cinderella project in the works, well they’re just going to have to get in line behind the mouse. Work on a live action Cinderella started last year when Disney paid The Devil Wears Prada writer Aline Brosh McKenna big money for her treatment on the material. That pitch seems to have come together nicely, because word from Deadline Fantasyland is that Disney is courting director Mark Romanek to helm the project. Romanek has directed films like One Hour Photo and Never Let Me Go before, and his work has always gotten a fair amount of critical acclaim, but it should be remembered that the last time he was attached to a big studio property it resulted in him walking out on Universal’s The Wolfman not long before shooting was scheduled to start. Seeing as nothing has been officially signed, [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Earlier today, the international trailer for We Need to Talk About Kevin showed us that a child raised in a seemingly normal environment could still end up a horrifying, dead-eyed sociopath with a panache for porn. Lynne Ramsay’s Cannes film swiftly removed any hope that human spawn could be charming or cuddly – so let’s chuck ‘em all and turn to something a bit more organic. After all, there’s nothing more hip than locally grown produce, so why not some locally grown kids? You liked the Cabbage Patch Kids when you were younger, right? Enter Disney’s The Odd Life of Timothy Green. The film is billed as “an inspiring, magical story about a happily married couple who bury a box in their backyard, containing all of their wishes for an infant. Soon, their child is born, though Timothy Green is not all that he appears.” That’s right, in this film, Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton can’t have children, so they write down everything they’d want for the kid they can never have, toss those wishes into a box, bury it in their garden, and act like it’s totally normal when a mud-covered elementary schooler shows up in their house during a hefty rainstorm. I know we’re doing great things with soybeans right now, but this is too much – there’s a big difference between a tofu burger and a garden-grown kid. Cue some stuff that looks like Powder fell in with some slow food hippies, and boom! there’s The Odd [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

The saga of the three Snow White movies continues. While most of the media attention has been going to Universal’s Snow White and The Huntsman and Relativity’s Lily Collins/Julia Roberts starring Snow White project up to this point, that’s because they got a bit of a head start in the Snow White game. Disney announced a while ago that they were going to be throwing their hats into the ring and turning this battle of the Snow Whites into a three-way affair, and there appears to be some motion on that front. When last we reported on this film it was going to be called Snow and the Seven, and it was about a 19th century Englishwoman traveling to Hong Kong for her father’s funeral, along with seven deadly companions. That concept seems to still be in place, and we also know a bit more about it. This Englishwoman, it seems, is being pursued by an ancient evil, and the warriors accompanying her are not only from an ancient order of fighters, they are also a multi-national group of colorful characters with different fighting styles.

Another week, another chance to share the obsession. Edition number 2 of this still brand new Merch Hunter column and I’m already gushing about something relating to Harry Potter – something I do far too frequently as it happens – as well as conveniently bending my own rules. Was never really one for rigid structures and laws and all that anyway. This time out, I discuss the distinction between boxsets and merch, the Disney Heroine effect and attempt to prod an artist through praise to sell out in the interest of my own need to fill my shelves with pretty things. All via the medium of this week’s three essential purchase picks.

Reese Witherspoon has just signed on to star in Disney’s Wish List, which focuses on “an overly imaginative little girl who makes ten wishes at a wishing well,” but those wishes never come true because her coin never reaches the well’s bottom. Somehow, it takes twenty-five years for that pesky coin to shake loose and, when it does, the now-adult little girl (Witherspoon) is faced with all of her wishes coming true at once. First of all, what sort of wishing well grants ten wishes per coin? Also, what sort of wishing well has enough nooks and crannies that coins can stay lodged in them for a quarter of a century? I just fail to understand the mechanics of this supposed “magic” well. Who is building these things these days? Elves? Just shoddy magical construction, all around. In any case, hijinx will surely ensue as Witherspoon’s character, now a career-focused adult, must handle the onslaught of wish fulfillment at its most unexpected. I will be legitimately shocked if one of those wishes is not for a pony, possibly even a unicorn.

For a while, the only thing we really knew about Disney’s upcoming The Lone Ranger is that Johnny Depp would be starring, curiously enough, as Tonto. Then, as the project began to take shape, we learned that he would be re-teaming with his Pirates of the Caribbean and Rango director Gore Verbinski, who came on to helm things. Then the third big piece of the puzzle came into place when The Social Network’s Übermensch Armie Hammer signed on to play The Lone Ranger himself. And now that the big names are in place, it has come time to begin filling out the rest of the cast.

Almost exactly a year ago, we reported that Disney was interested in creating a movie based on stone statues that came to life even if it wasn’t based on the cartoon show Gargoyles. According to Variety, that idea is now being solidified as a script by David Elliot and Paul Lovett (who wrote G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra). The pair came to The Mouse with an original concept that has nothing to do with the television cartoon series but shares the exact same high concept conceit. There’s very little information beyond “stone becoming flesh,” so it’s tough to gauge, but it seems like a fair assumption that it will be an action adventure film aimed at children and at Burger King tie-ins. If that really is the case, Elliot and Lovett are good choices to build a project that can also sell toys.

Like most giant stars, Johnny Depp is attached to far more projects than he could ever appear in, so any news of upcoming development is near meaningless. With that in mind, here are three more pieces of meat that Depp is adding to his plate. Slashfilm is reporting that he’ll be continuing his engrossing and high grossing relationship with Disney by developing an adaptation of the 1970s made-for-TV movie The Night Stalker which features a journalist who starts to believe that serial killings in and around Las Vegas are actually the work of a vampire (which sounds curiously like the new Fright Night). Along with The Mouse, Depp is also trying to bring the story of Paul Revere’s midnight ride to life. Here’s hoping he doesn’t do all his research for it on Wikipedia. If that weren’t enough, Depp wants to start moving on In the Hand of Dante with Julian Schnabel as the director. According to The Playlist, the project isn’t exactly official, but Depp owns the rights, and Schnabel claims, “We’re gonna work on writing it, developing it.” The story, adapted from the book by Nick Tosches splits its time between Dante finding inspiration to write his “Divine Comedy” in the 14th century and a fictionalized Nick Tosches sinking into the underworld in 2001.

Why Watch? Because we’ve all love a shady spot in the pasture. Disney brought this children’s story to life in animation and won an Oscar for it. It’s a sweet film that seems far sillier than it could have been because the narrator, Don Wilson, delivers the voices as well. Don’t worry, Ferdinand. We don’t want to fight in the bullrings in Madrid either. What does it cost? Just 8 minutes of your time. Check out Ferdinand the Bull for yourself:

I’m not a parent, but I know that you’re a bad one. You know why? Because you probably took your kids to see Cars 2 this weekend. I know what you’re thinking: “What’s wrong with Cars 2, it’s just a harmless little kids movie.” Well, it’s destroying America with it’s anti-oil message, indoctrinating our children to become Prius-buying, David Simon-worshipping tree huggers so the late-term-aborting hippie liberals at Pixar can do their part in carrying out Hollywood’s takeover of family values. You’re probably thinking, “But Landon, children typically don’t understand subtext. And when children grow up in a free democratic society such as ours they often question for themselves the values and ideas they were exposed to as children and eventually adopt a perspective that makes the most sense to them, thus making your use of ‘indoctrination’ hyperbolic and short-sighted. Anyway, even if they did understand what Pixar was doing, children don’t give a ratatouille’s ass about politics, the free market, offshore drilling, or our over-reliance on fossil fuels. They just want to watch a movie about talking cars. Also, being a child of the late 80s/early 90s, you grow up with a lot of environmentally-aware children’s entertainment like Jim Henson’s TV show Dinosaurs and movies like FernGully and The Brave Little Toaster, yet those didn’t inform your political perspective in either direction just as they didn’t make you think dinosaurs wore clothes and acted like the cast of All in the Family.” That would all be fine and dandy [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr is inspired by Larry the Cable Guy and his character of Mater in the Cars movies. After all, if a buck-toothed rusty redneck pick-up truck can travel the world, why can’t a bald-yet-hairy fat guy from Ohio can do so as well. Kevin lurked in the streets of Tokyo, hoping to stumble onto some classy British spies and uncover a plot to undermine green energy sources. Then he brushed off his teaching degree and got a job at a middle school where he drank profusely, slept through the day and threw dodge balls at the kids. When he tried to explain to the cops that he was just following in the way of Cameron Diaz’s character from Bad Teacher, they just laughed at him and hauled him away.

Cats! Singing! Scatting! Having adventures! The 1970 animated flick from Disney has one of the most surreal plots – even for their high standards. A group of cats is in line to inherit a fortune, but they have to battle an evil butler to get it. Fortunately, they can all talk (and one can scat, which comes in handy), and do things that humans do. They use these special powers mostly to play jazz and seem intoxicated. This trailer is for the re-release that took place a decade later, but the joy of the movie is clearly on display here. Who’s up for a double feature with The Fox and the Hound?

The universe of “John Carter,” created by Edgar Rice Burroughs is expansive and detailed. It’s gorgeously detailed, and the character will be celebrating his 100th birthday with a movie (finally). Yesterday, a teaser poster highlighting someone’s favorite new font was released – doing nothing to share the rich world of the film with fans or potential fans. That’s a shame, but Disney has released two pieces of concept art via a fantastic interview with director Andrew Stanton over at the LA Times. In case you were wondering what the Monty Python/Carter connection was. What do you think of this concept art?

It seemed only natural that John Carter of Mars would become John Carter – since most Americans hate things from Mars and need to be tricked into seeing movies – but there’s nothing natural about the teaser poster for the film. It’s a red letter attempt at building buzz, but it’s unclear exactly how it will achieve it with only the bare chest of Taylor Kitsch and enough photoshopping to turn him into Michael Shannon. A brand new property is emerging, and another is seeing its final curtain. On the other end of the poster spectrum is this bold new look at the children from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. All grown up and ready to battle. Click on the posters to make them far, far larger:

Once upon a time, about twenty years ago or so, Disney didn’t have to rely on Pixar to keep their legacy as King of children’s entertainment going.  A new generation of hand drawn Disney classics like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast were breaking box office records, earning critical acclaim, and winning awards. Then came The Lion King in 1994, a film that to this day holds the record as being the highest grossing hand drawn animated feature of all time. The Lion King was perhaps the crowning achievement of Disney’s second golden age, and in order to remind you of their past accomplishments, Disney is going to celebrate by selling it to you all over again.

Why Watch? Because when Disney and Dali team up, it’s a good idea to pay attention. The surreal, flourishing art of Salvador Dali comes to life here in a collaboration the mustachioed one began with Disney in 1948 that wouldn’t be completed until 2003. The animation team breathed life into several iconic Dali images (with a story taking place in his wasteland setting). The tale of a young woman floating through this dream world has a strangely calming effect, and it goes without saying that the visuals are stunning. What Will It Cost? Just 6 minutes of your time. Check out Destino for yourself:

Baddass Digest is reporting that both The Mouse and Warners are trying to get Darren Aronofsky on board for big budget projects. For Disney, it’s Maleficent – the new take on Sleeping Beauty that sees Angelina Jolie wearing the horned black cloak. For Warners, it’s Moses – an epic about a Jewish slave in Egypt singing “Let My People….Go.” On the one hand, Aronfosky could be spinning his own fairy tale. On the other, he could be re-imagining a Biblical history. Either way, none of this is a done deal because the studios are undoubtedly talking with other directors (like David Yates for Maleficent), and it’s not like Aronofsky has to choose simply between these two pictures. Thus, the real question becomes: which would you rather see him do? The Moses, The Witch or the None of the Above?