Disney's The Beauty and the Beast

The first of the Disney IMAX movies will be A Christmas Carol, that will be released during the holiday season, in 2009. A Christmas Carol will be directed by Robert Zemeckis, director of The Polar Express. The movie will star Jim Carrey as the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge. Colin Firth will play his nephew and Gary Oldman will play Scrooge’s loyal clerk.

Disney has not said what the other four IMAX movies will be, but the movies are expected to have directors like Tim Burton attached to them.

Meanwhile, Disney has already begun re-rendering Beauty and the Beast in 3D, which will take nine months to complete.

The 3D version will be released in 2010.

The original team of The Beauty and the Beast (1991) – producer Don Hahn, and directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale – will work on the movie, along with Sara Duran-Singer, senior vice president of Worldwide Post Production, who will head the technical expert team.

The Beauty and the Best was a huge hit at the box office and was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. It won the Oscar for Best Song and Best Original Score.

The movie won the Golden Globe award in the Best Comedy/Musical category.

Disney plans to release 11 3D films, including Beauty and the Beast, by 2010. One of these is the Jonas Brothers 3D Concert movie that will be released in February 2009. The movie will have Demi Lovato and Taylor Swift as guest stars who perform a song with the band.

Next on its slate is Disney Pixar’s UP that will be released in May 2009. This quirky movie is directed by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, and written by Bob Peterson.

Disney will also release G-Force in July 2009. The movie will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Holy Yeatman. G-Force revolves around guinea pigs who are trained to take on a billionaire set to take over the world. Actors Nicholas Cage, Bill Nighy, Penelope Cruz, Steve Buscemi, Kelli Garner will lend their voices to the movie.

Disney will also release Disney-Pixar’s 3D version of Toy Story 2, 3D Toy Story 3, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Rapunzel, and Step Up 3D, in 2010.

Disney’s 3D flick Bolt will be released in November-end 2008.

Both Disney and IMAX need the deal to pull in more moviegoers to the theatres. Disney has been in overdrive with its  3D flicks as they are perfect for cinema viewing. IMAX too needs more 3D movies to keep going.

Other studios like Dreamworks and 20th Century Fox are also excited over the medium. Although 3D movies can shown only on 1400 screens in the US, studios are optimistic that 3D is the medium of the future.

We had initially reported on the stalled Tintin 3D movie in September

Steven Spielberg has been planning to make the Tintin movies for a long time now, 25 years to be precise but has not found any concrete backers.

Tintin

In September  2008, Universal Pictures backed out of a deal with Paramount Pictures to fund the $130 million project. Reportedly, Universal backpedaled when Spielberg and Jackson demanded 30% of the movie’s total gross receipts, including DVD, TV and ancillary sales. The studio was not willing to take a risk on Tintin, since its bottom line would be under threat unless the 3-D Tintin movies grossed $425 million in global ticket sales.

Subsequently, Spielberg and Jackson put the 3-D Tintin project on hold till they found financiers for the 3-D flick, even though Spielberg had directed parts of the movie. Peter Jackson has also been developing performance-capture technology for the Tintin movie, at a cost of $30 million funded by Paramount.

The first part of the 3-D Tintin series, to be directed by Spielberg, was to go into production in October 2008, with Spielberg being very keen to get started on the project. Peter Jackson will direct the second part of the Tintin trilogy. The third director has yet to be decided.

The 3-D Tintin trilogy will used motion-capture technology that combines animation with real characters.

The first part of the 3-D Tintin trilogy will be released in 2010.

Tintin 3-D trilogy

Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s plan to make a 3-D movie adaptation of the Adventures of Tintin has hit a roadblock. Universal Pictures has refused to foot the $130 million budget for the Tintin trilogy project put forward by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson.  Tintin has been a pet project of Spielberg, who has been planning to make the Tintin movie since 1983.

The two directors have put the production of Tintin on hold until they find someone else to finance the Tintin 3-D movie. Dreamworks’ owner Paramount -with whom Spielberg has been associated for long – was ready to finance half the movie. The production of the 3-D Tintin movie was supported to commence in October 2008.

Spielberg was to direct the first part of the Tintin trilogy, while Jackson was to direct the second. It was undecided as to who would direct the third part of the Tintin trilogy.

Reports say that Universal backtracked when Spielberg and Jackson demanded 30% of the movie’s total gross revenues, including DVD, TV and ancillary sales. Unless the Tintin 3-D trilogy garnered $425 million in global ticket sales, the studo would wind up with a loss. Universal was not prepared to take the risk to its bottom line.

Peter Jackson – director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy – has been developing performance-capture technology for the Tintin movie, at a cost of $30 million. Most of the money came from Paramount.

Spielberg may have problem getting Paramount to finance the Tintin trilogy, now that Dreamworks’ (Spielberg’s own company) has split from Paramount. Dreamworks signed a $1.2 million deal with India’s Reliance Entertainment company on September 20, 2008.

Kung Fu Panda

Kung Fu Panda  made $560 million (£299 million) in global ticket sales, overtaking the Shrek movies.

Kung Fu Panda, for those who have not watched the movie, is the story of a clumsy but endearing panda, Po, who works in his family’s noodle shop and dreams of being a Kung Fu master. Po has to fulfill an ancient prophecy and gets to learn Kung Fu under Master Shifu, along with his idols, Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey. Po gets a chance to face his fears and be a real Kung Fu master when he has to take on the dangerous snow leopard Tai Lung.

The voiceovers in Kung Fu Panda are provided by Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen, David Cross, Dan Fogler, Michael Clarke Duncan, Wayne Knight, and James Hong.

Kung Fu Panda was directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

Apart from Kung Fu Panda 2, Dreamworks plans to make two more Madagascar sequels after Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, which will be released in November 2008 in the US and December 2008 in the UK. All the Madagascar sequels will be made in 3-D.